Women & Islamic Cultures Family, Law and Politics

Iran and Afghanistan

In Afghanistan and Iran markers of group dis-
tinction – nationality, ethnicity, religion, language,
and race – intertwine in complex ways, and interact
with gender, class, and socioeconomic formations
such as nomadism, tribalism, and feudalism.
The relative sizes of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups
have changed in the wake of the internal wars that
began in the late 1970s and have turned the coun-
try into an international war zone. In the absence of
reliable census data, the following are estimates
only. By 1978, there were Pashtuns (40 percent,
mostly Sunnìs), Tajiks (25 percent, mostly Sunnìs),
Hazaras (10 percent, mostly Shì≠ì), Uzbeks and
Turkmens (13 percent, mostly Sunnì), and smaller
communities such as the Aimaqs (Sunnì), Baluches
and Brahuis (Sunnì), and Nuristanis. These socio-
ethnic formations are diverse in terms of settlement
and production relations. Thus, tribalism is more
prevalent among the Pashtuns than the Tajiks, while
nomadic life is more persistent among the Aimaq.
Religious minorities include Shì≠ìs, Ismà≠ìlìs, Hindus,
Sikhs, and Jews (Jawad 1992).
In Iran, there are Persians (50 percent, Shì≠ì),
Azerbaijani Turks (24 percent, Shì≠ì), Kurds (9 per-
cent, mostly Sunnì), Lurs (5 percent, Shì≠ì), Baluches
(3 percent, Sunnìs), Arabs (2.5 percent mostly
Shì≠ì), Turkmens (1.5 percent, Sunnì), Qashqayis
(1.2 percent, Shì≠ì), Armenians (0.71 percent,
Christian), Assyrians (0.36 percent, Christian), and
Jews (0.25 percent) (data based on government
sources cited in Aliyev 1966, 64). While Arabs,
Azeri Turks, Baluches, Kurds, and Turkmens live
predominantly on their ancestral territories, which
extend into neighboring countries, others such
as Armenians, Assyrians, and Jews are scattered
throughout the country. Religious minorities in-
clude, among others, Sunnìs, Bahà±ìs, Christians,
Ismà≠ìlìs, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Ahl-e Haqq.
Relationships among the groups are marked by
inequality, although the minority/majority distinc-
tion is not necessarily a question of numerical
strength. Thus, while in Afghanistan the Pashtuns
are more numerous than the Tajiks and enjoy hege-
mony in the exercise of state power, their lan-
guage is overshadowed by the literary and cultural
hegemony of Dari, the language of the Tajiks.

Political-Social Movements: Ethnic and Minority

Afghanistan has therefore been called a “nation of

minorities” (Jawad 1992).

Before the twentieth century

These communities lived in harmony and conflict

in a feudal regime which tied the majority of the

population to agrarian land and did not allow the

centralization of state power. The majority were

ra≠àyà(subjects), and lived as peasants or members

of tribes, with a very small, though influential,

urban population. Allegiance was to kin, tribe, eth-

nic group, and birthplace, and religion was often

ignored when it conflicted with the requirements of

nomadic, tribal, and feudal life (Jawad 1992, 7).

While these peoples shared a great deal, from

proverbs to songs to tilling techniques, they were

aware of their ethnic distinctness, which was often

expressed in terms such as Pashtunwali, Kurde-

warî, and Baluchmayar (Pashtu, Kurdish, and

Baluch way of life). The dominance of the male was

one of the markers of ethnic identity (Lafrance

2000, Hassanpour 2001). Women, as bearers of

men’s honor, carried also the honor of kin, tribe,

and people, and were, as such, targets of the enemy

in times of war. Ethnicity as a marker of woman-

hood is articulated in folklore and language, for

example, dukhtar-i tarsà(Christian girl, Persian) or

kiçe hermenî (Armenian girl, Kurdish). However,

the ethnic particularism of women was dwarfed by

the universality of a patriarchal regime that was

indispensable for the (re)production of tribal and

feudal relations of production.

Nationalism and

nation-building

The Constitutional Revolution of Iran (1905–11)

aimed at instituting a modern political system dis-

tinguished by national sovereignty, citizenship,

regime of rights, the rule of law, representative gov-

ernment, and territorial integrity. In Afghanistan,

British interest in building a bulwark against

Russia, rather than a democratic revolution, initi-

ated the first steps toward the centralization of

state power. In both countries, though more so in

Iran, the nation-state tended to eliminate the exer-

cise of power by ethnic peoples, and put an end

to feudal, tribal, or religious fragmentation of the

land and the people. This project, like its Western