Conceptualizing love for peace from below: Humane security in Afghanistan
Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh/ Open Democracy
An alternative concept of security is needed based on values of humanity and empathy, a security that is not only ‘human’ but also ‘humane’.
A former Taliban envoy taught me a valuable lesson one day. As we sat in an academic institution in a European capital, he told me his story, or perhaps it was somebody else’s story, but it was representative of the story of his people, living in large extended families in rural areas with minimal facilities and entrenched poverty. A bomb was dropped by a plane on his village one day, he said, killed all of his immediate and extended family members, parents, siblings, aunts, cousins, the whole lot. Desperate, depressed, and raised on a culture of revenge as duty, what could he do, he asked?
He was referring to Pashtunwali, the tribal moral code and rules of behaviors, based on principles such as Turah (courage and bravery and defense of land, property, and family), Nyaw (justice), Nang (honor), Badal (revenge) and Awyaar (pride) but also Melmestia (hospitality), and Nanawatai (forgiveness or giving asylum). Nanawatai could in principle be used to offset the tradition of revenge, but the bomb from high up on the sky, and sometimes from an unmanned drone, rendered obsolete the axiom of looking into the eyes of the enemy while forgiving or settling the score.
That elusive little thing called peace
Yet, a lot of simultaneous conversations are happening in and around Afghanistan these days, all centered around that elusive concept of peace. Seven rounds of talks between the Taliban and US negotiators in Qatar are trying to hammer an agreement on a four point agenda: counter-terrorism, US troops withdrawal, intra-Afghan negations and a ceasefire. Government officials in their personal capacity, other opposition groups, political parties and civil society actors have been sitting in all Afghan talks co-sponsored by Germany and Qatar. If a group is not around the table, it feels it will be on the menu, or at least completely relegated to the kitchen for a thankless job behind the corridors of power.Peace is being sought everywhere. From an international security perspective, recalling that Afghanistan is strategically located between the interests of global powers, and given the presence of international terror groups on Afghan land (Al Qaeda before and now ISIS-Khorasan province), many may argue that peace depends on the will of global actors.
A history and rich culture of love
Peace, enlightenment, harmony, and ultimately love are not alien to the cultural, philosophical and spiritual tradition of Afghanistan and the region surrounding it. This was the main message of the Second Symposium of the Herat School of Security organized by the Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies, held on June 20-21st in Kabul.
Speaker after speaker recalled that the region of Khorasan, encompassing today’s Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia physically, and India, Pakistan and Turkey culturally, has been the historical birthplace of enlightened intellectuals, literary and mystic movements.