2. What is Pashtunistan?
• Historical region inhabited by native
Pashtun people since 1000 BC
• Politically divided in 1893 by Durand
Line
• Since 1940s some Pashtun nationalists
proposed Pashtunistan as future
sovereign state
4. Population size:
• 12 Million
Afghanistan
60% total pop.
• 27 Million
Pakistan
• Maps of
Pashtunistan
often
incorporate
Balochistan
though
Balochs and
Pashtuns
differ
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Including Balochistan
allows landlocked
Afghani territories
access to Indian Ocean
Balochs oppose being
Included in
Pashtunistan
6. Pashtun People
Many tribes, most are nomadic United by Pashto language
and Pashtunwali - Majority are Sunni Muslim
• Melmastia (hospitality)
• Nanawatai (asylum)
• Badal (justice)
• Sabat (loyality)
• Imandari (righteousness)
• Istequamat
• Ghayrat (self honor)
• Namus (Honor of women)
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8. Pashtun People
• Hamid Karzai (President of
Afghanistan)
• Afghan royal family
• In Pakistan ethnic Pashtuns
attained Presidency
• Primary ethnic group that
comprises Taliban
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9. Grievances
• British colonialism robbed Pashtuns of their
ethnic homeland
• Empire once stretched as far east as the Indus
River
• Pakistan has quashed efforts to establish an
independent Pashtunistan
• Desire to escape domination by Islamabad
– Refusal to build infrastructure
– Do not teach Pashtu language in schools
• Taliban extremism has helped reinvigorate
Pashtunistan movement - general radicalization
10. Goals
• Create an independent nation state (Islamic
caliphate) governed Sharia law.
– Caliphate - political/religious state that unifies Muslim
people under the rule of a caliph (head of state)
– Sharia law - sacred law of Islam
• Qur’an
• Prophet Muhammed
• Secular law - crime, politics, economics, etc.
• Personal matters - sexuality, hygeine, diet, prayer, etc.
• Some claim Pashtuns practice an extreme interpretation of
Sharia law
11. Pashtunistan and the “War on Terror”
• Taliban militants have gained
an advantage from the
border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan by ignoring it.
• Americans have been
hindered because they must
respect the border.
• Pakistan and Afghanistan are
concerned about their
sovereign rights on either
side of the line, but the
Pashtuns themselves have
never paid the boundary
much regard.
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