The maximum borders of Pashtunistan (shadowed in blue) and the Durand Line border in red The Pash­tuns, and their tribes strad­dle the polit­i­cal bound­ary between Pak­istan and Afghanistan. “Pash­tunistan,” a coun­try that exists in only a...

The maximum borders of Pashtunistan (shadowed in blue) and the Durand Line border in red


The Pash­tuns, and their tribes strad­dle the polit­i­cal bound­ary between Pak­istan and Afghanistan. “Pash­tunistan,” a coun­try that exists in only a cul­tural con­text, encom­pass­ing all the Pash­tun peo­ple from both sides of the boarder. The red line on the map was drawn when British India pushed north into Afghan ter­ri­tory and the Afghan King ceded that land. How­ever, the bor­der has always been fluid– many Pash­tuns grew up par­tially in Pak­istan and travel between Jalal­abad and Peshawar reg­u­larly. Thou­sands of Afghan Pash­tuns moved east­ward dur­ing the Soviet inva­sion or dur­ing the Mujahideen fought civil war that fol­lowed or when the Tal­iban gov­ern­ment seized power. They still have rel­a­tives there, who speak the same lan­guage and fol­low the same Pash­tun­wali code of ethics and honor. Pash­tun peo­ple don’t even need a pass­port to cross the boarder over the Kyber pass. Haz­zaras and Tajiks will be has­sled and need proper doc­u­men­ta­tion. Pashto speak­ers who look the part get waved in. Polit­i­cally we are in Afghanistan but cul­tur­ally we’re slip­ping into Pakistan.

Dec. 15 2011
#Pashtunistan #borders #durand line #Afghanistan #Pakistan #pashtuns
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