On a sketch comedy show aired on Tolo Television, Afghanistan’s privately owned television station that proudly sprouts the slogan – dawn of a new Afghanistan – there is an endearing nickname for Pakistan: wandistan. Wandh is slang, in Dari, for ‘everything bad’ and wandistan translates roughly to ‘the land of all things bad.’
Pakistan’s credibility is low on Kabul’s pot-holed, war-beleaguered streets. Half of Kabul, it seems, has lived in Pakistan for long stretches of time since Afghans first started crossing into Pakistan 27 years ago. Many have warm memories of their stay in Pakistani refugee camps in Hayatabad or in the larger cities of Islamabad and Karachi. But, they too feel there is a wandhistan across the border.
A week ago AlJazeera television aired exclusive interviews with two young failed suicide bombers. Both men were from south Waziristan and had been sent on suicide missions with specific instructions to attack checkpoints or places were Afghan troops or coalition forces were stationed. One of the two said he didn’t have it in him to press the button, even with the intoxicating carrot of paradise and virgins dangling before him. Afghans understood that the two Pakistani men were poor and relatively clueless, that they have been manipulated through extremist propaganda and other incentives. But that they had emerged the troubled tribal areas simply strengthened Pakistan’s wandhistan image.
“It’s not Pakistanis we don’t like,” an Afghan journalism student told me. “It is the intelligence services and the government. It is their police of strategic depth that we don’t like.”
Indeed, strategic depth has proved to be a disaster for both Afghanistan and Pakistan. With a hostile attitude towards Hindu-dominated India and Shia-dominated Iran, Pakistan’s attempts to prop up Pakistan-friendly Pushtoon governments in Afghanistan have failed. Yet, the biggest psychological disaster has been the government’s support for the Taliban that grew up in Pakistan’s arms but has rebelled against it in its adulthood. That is a difficult and painful memory for most Afghans to forget.
Farzana Samimi presents ‘Banu,’ which means woman in Dari, a daily show on Tolo that addresses women’s issues. She is one among a new generation of fearless young women who have started working in media to challenge the stereotypes and labels attached to their gender. But not long ago, Ms. Samimi, who has a degree in veterinary science, was not allowed to study or work, and had to wear the sky-blue ribbed burqa that is the trademark of the Taliban era. “It took me two years after the collapse of the Taliban to stop wearing the burqa,” she says, dressed today in a smart blazer and pants ensemble with a cheetah-print scarf covering part of her hair. “I was scared. It was very difficult to adapt to the change. I was working at Arman FM and I was covering myself with a chador. A lot of educated women wouldn’t come out on the streets even after the Taliban fell. But gradually women got more courage and things are changing.”
Indeed, today, fewer women on Kabul’s streets don the sky-blue burqa. They are outnumbered by those who don’t. Many young girls are back in universities planning careers, thankful that the Taliban are no more. There are rumours and fears that the Taliban are gathering momentum in areas near Kabul but for now Kabulis, in general, feel very strongly about a future that embraces change, discussion and gender inclusion versus the top-down inflexibility and oppression of Taliban rule.
Afghans see Pakistan’s interference in their internal affairs as a major cause of their instability.
Distrust of Pakistan is aided by a lack of interaction between Pakistanis and Afghanistan. While millions of Afghanis have lived in Pakistan, few Pakistanis have visited or lived in Afghanistan. For obvious reasons, Afghanistan has not been high on Pakistan’s to-do list of tourist destinations. Still, Pakistanis’ unfamiliarity with Afghanistan rankles many in Kabul.
“It amazes me,” an Afghan journalist told me, “how little Pakistanis know about Afghanistan, how few Pakistanis come here to visit or journalists to report. There is one Pakistani who knows Afghanistan and who people respect here — and that is Ahmed Rashid.”
However, a good portion of the Afghan population has a deep and intimate relationship with Pakistan. From gardeners, cooks and drivers to traders and Kabul’s former elite, millions have set foot in Pakistan. “I was in Peshawar for years,” says Lubna, who works with an international NGO in Kabul. “I had a wonderful time. People were very kind to me. Pakistan gave me a home. But we don’t accept the role Pakistan has played in propping up the Taliban.”
“Afghans are split on their feelings towards Pakistan,” says Haroun Mir, a former aide to the late Ahmad Shah Masoud, Afghanistan’s former defense minister and leader of the Northern Alliance. Mir is currently developing a think tank in the hope of creating a bridge between intellectuals in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Our futures are inter-connected, and we need to break down the walls that separate us.”
Certainly the window of opportunity for that bridge is getting slimmer for Pakistan as India’s more warm, culturally appealing influence spreads through the country. In Kabul, Hindi music is a must-listen, the cinemas show Bollywood films and posters of Aishwarya Rai, the most desired of Bollywood belles, are plastered everywhere. Taxi drivers and Kabulis carry a regular assortment of the best in Afghan music – Ahmed Zahir for old times – and endless collections of the latest in Bollywood tunes, even if they don’t speak Urdu. The Indian government has put in healthy amounts of aid into the region, partnered on and headed several big infrastructure projects, and is seen as a partner recognizing the dawn of a new Afghanistan.
Conversely, Pakistan is associated with destruction. When people think of Pakistan, they think of Gulbuddin Hekmetyaar, of rocket attacks on Afghan soil, of the Taliban and the destruction of the Bamiyan statues.
It’s not too late for Pakistanis to extend themselves to their neighbours both at a governmental level and through civil society. Afghan students should be welcomed and given scholarships to attend Pakistani universities. Academic exchanges should be encouraged. Pakistani students should visit the Afghan capital and familiarize themselves with Afghan history and culture. Pakistani and Afghan musicians should visit each other’s countries and sing for each other’s people. Pakistan should invest in long-term economic projects in Afghanistan. President Musharraf has spoken time and again about developing and nurturing Pakistan’s soft image overseas. But Pakistan’s own backyard is a garden full of weeds.
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great writing