Lemar-Aftaab Oct-Dec. 1997 - Articles -Afghan Bashing

Afghan Bashing

By Katrin Fakiri

In the past few years I've become aware of a discouraging trend amongst Afghans. It seems that whenever a couple of us get together, we automatically start bashing "other Afghans." What's amusing is that we blame others for the very things that we do ourselves. I sometimes wonder if this is because we lack respect for one another, have low self-esteem and it makes us feel better to put down others, or is it simply that we underestimate our people. What is even more disturbing is that the trend has rolled on over to our youth. Not only have they picked up the habit of Afghan bashing but are the victims of it as well. The biggest complaint, or concern, is that we have drifted from our heritage and culture and are in danger of losing it. Cited evidence are the high rates of divorce and broken engagements, the existence of Afghan gangs, and our liberal views among other things. Have we changed? Yes, but the fact is that we are not as bad as we make ourselves out to be. More than ever, we, the youth, are aware of our roots and are active participant in our communities to one extent or another. If we only choose to open our eyes and acknowledge one another's efforts, maybe our outlook wouldn't be so grim.

Yes, our culture is in danger of becoming extinct, our views have been altered, we have become disconnected from our roots, but despite these things we have done a pretty good job of keeping our culture alive. It might even be that we have fortified our efforts because we sense and understand the urgency of saving our heritage before it is too late.

More than any other age group, Afghans, generally in the below 30 age group, are primarily responsible for sustaining our culture, as evident in the many communities around the country. In Northern California alone, Afghan youths are responsible for implementing a weekly TV program named Dounya-ay-Jawanan, an Islamic TV program run by Afghan youths, youth newsletter and newspapers, various organizations including Afghan clubs in almost all of the Bay Area high schools, colleges, and universities. Perhaps the most obvious effort by Afghans to maintain their culture is the very technology that is making it possible for you to read this --the Internet. This online publication and the numerous Afghan Web sites are all started and maintained by Afghan youths. Go on any search engine and type in the word "Afghan" and you will see a long list of pages that has information about Afghan history, poetry, culture, geography, and pictures (in case you are not aware, 27 million people have access to the Internet worldwide).

Other demonstrations of Afghan activism are our intense interest in our music, as evident in the high attendance of our youth in Afghani concerts, our desire to still want to marry within our culture, despite a growing trend of marrying non-Afghans, and most amazing of all, without it ever having been explained to us, we are aware of a concept called "Afghan Pride."

I have yet to meet a young Afghan, no matter the age, that isn't proud of being Afghan despite the critical opinions that they may hold. We are more aware of our culture than we are perceived to be. This, of course, doesn't mean that we could breath a sigh of relief. There are many kids out there who have no clue about their culture or heritage. And there are thousands more that will grow up to be clueless Afghans. The solution to saving our culture is not easily attainable or possible. However, there are measure we can take now that will insure instilling a degree of knowledge and pride in being Afghan as these kids grow up in a foreign culture. The steps we can take are twofold: one, we must maintain the momentum that we are on now and continue being active in our communities so that younger Afghans could have resources to turn to for information and role models; two, Afghan culture must be taught and practiced in the home. Our families are responsible for bringing up their Afghan kids as Afghans. We have started to set a foundation, a system where our future leaders can follow and hopefully make it flourish by contributing in bigger and better ways than we have.

We are a much more wiser, educated, and intelligent community than ever before. More of our youths are attending colleges and universities than any other time in Afghan history. We have engineers, teachers, architects, lawyers, doctors, artists, and entrepreneurs. If we all own up to our responsibility in small measure and continue on this momentum, the future of Afghanistan is indeed bright.