Z is for Zadran!

Oh my God! I got to wrapped up in STUFF yesterday that I totally forgot it was Monday!!!! My apologies! I hope Jen forgives the infraction, but this is my Tuesday's version of A to Z Mondays!

Z is for ZADRAN!......which is the ethnic Afghani Pahstun tribe from which my family hails. You know that area of southeast Afghanistan that is always on the news (Tora Bora, Khost, etc.)??? Well, that mountainous region is where my maternal ancestors and relatives call home. When I hear of civilian casualties in that region, I allow myself to wonder if that civilian was perhaps a cousin, a great aunt, or some other relative. The Pashtun tribes procreated healthily (;-) so it is very possible that folks sharing my blood roam those mountains today. I try not to wonder too often. It gets very depressing.

There is a code of ethics and hospitality called Pasthunwali that governs societal conduct after the ethics we learn in the Quran. (But, Pashtunwali is another post altogether!) Because of Pashtunwali, if you were someone who happened upon a Zadran home, they would have opened their door and their home to you, no questions asked. Growing up, there was never a shortage of foreigners and/or "new friends" at our dinner table whom my grandmother or my uncle happened to meet while at the market, and decided to invite over for dinner.

There are three Zadran provinces, Paktia, Paktika, and Khost, but Zadrans can live anywhere as they are part of the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the Pashtuns. Paktia is the province of my family's heritage, and it is very mountainous, with extreme weather fluctuations, and full of a colorful, brave and hospitable folks. In fact, hospitality is next to Godliness for Pashtuns. We affectionately call the women in our family the "Mountain Warrior Women". You have to have a really tough, strong spirit to survive the harsh life in the mountains. But the stark beauty surrounding the Zadran Valley is an everyday reimbursement from God for what he knows his people endure.

The cool thing about Pashtuns, and Zadrans in particular, is that their history is full of stories of strong, independent women who were an integral part of daily life, not the women we see in the news today. Tales of Pashtun women bearing arms to fight alongside their men when various invaders set their sights upon Afghan land are common in traditional Zadran historic stories. The heroic tales of Pashtun Zadran women battling the British invasion while camping in the mountains are astounding. It is heartbreaking for me as an Afghan woman to see what the Taliban and extreme Islam has done to the rich, strong tapestry of the Afghan woman's existence.
Wikipedia has a little blurb about the Zadran tribe, but it doesn't even come close to explaining the complex history of the tribe. So much of Afghanistan's history, political, economical, social, religious, military, agricultural, you name it, has been scripted as as result of the direct involvement of the Zadran tribe. Very often they acted as gatekeepers at that crucial border along the southeastern lands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadran_tribe

When I see pictures of the Zadran valley from decades past, it is a reminder of what is in store for the future of Afghanistan if our military strategy is successful in driving out fundamentalist and violent elements of the country's current history. I have hope that the Afghanistan I remember will one day become true again. I have that hope because I live in America. I pray that Afghans will inherit that sense of hope from our American troops over there now trying to establish stability and peace, two things that are such essential nutrients for hope. For over 3 decades now that sense of hope and future has been stripped away, first by the Soviets, then fractional infighting between the different tribes, and then the onslaught by the Taliban and the fundamentalist, violent views of new "Muslims", including the biggest hypocrite of a "Muslim" himself, Bin Laden, who all arrrived from western Arab lands to infiltrate a vulnerable, poor, hungry nation. Ok, I need to stop before I throw a tantrum here. I could literally go on forever and a day, but I won't.

Anyhoooooo, if you'd like to see what others in Blogistan are doing for A-Z Mondays....actually, what they DID for A-Z Mondays (ha!), go over to Jen's blog at http://unglazed.blogspot.com !!!

Many of you have asked how you can be a part of A-Z Mondays, well, all you have to do is go to Jen's blog and let her know you're playing along. She'll put you on the blog roll, we'll all storm your comments section to welcome you, and you know the rest from there. This is the end of A-Z Mondays, obviously, but we do it again beginning next week, except BACKWARDS! So, hope to see some newbies next week for Z-A Mondays!

Hope you all have a great Tuesday! :-)