#Afghan diaspora

[writingwithcolor]

Would it be problematic for me to have a black girl convert to sikhi over the course of the story with the assistance of her Sikh friend & the friend’s family and then get married to said friend in the future? I don’t want it to seem like she did it simply to be with her friend so I thought that maybe if I showed how she enjoys hearing things about the religion (for example how sikhi emphasizes treating everyone equally and also the protection of those facing injustice) from her friend that it could seem more natural but could that be seen as fetishizing? The black girl has been friends with the family for 10+ years (aka since she was 8) and also wasn’t raised following any religion (but not as an atheist either) so I feel the conversion would be somewhat easy for her but if any of what I’ve wrote is problematic I’ll change it! I’m still doing research so if I messed anything up I’m extremely sorry. Thank you in advance!

Black woman converts to become Sikh - Is this problematic?

If SK thinks these circumstances are okay from the Sikhism standpoint, then absolutely it is fine. Black people are all individual and different people throughout the diaspora. We are not some collective monolith with a build-in set of interests, beliefs and rules on what we can and cannot do! The real question to me is if someone can convert to Sikhism and if so, how being Black factors into the lifestyle.

On that note, I will hand the mic to SK and also welcome Black Sikh followers to chime in.

-Colette

Sikhi accept converts

Short answer: No, it is not problematic. Sikhi accepts converts. There’s nothing wrong with being drawn to a faith because of certain aspects and then looking deeper and choosing to convert.

Longer answer: Conversion into a completely new faith is rarely easy. I would say Sikhi is a harder faith to convert to because there are few resources in other languages and many Sikhs are unaccustomed to converts. As in most, if not all, religions, there is a gap between what is said and how it’s practiced.

Despite the messages about fighting injustice and treating others equally, many Sikh converts, especially Black Sikhs, deal with prejudice. This is not even unique to converts - Afghan & Kashmiri Sikhs have also faced ignorant comments from Punjabi Sikhs who aren’t aware of Sikh communities outside Punjab. The 1980’s-1990’s Sikh genocide disconnected many Sikhs in Punjab from the revolutionary messages of justice and equality laid out in Sikh holy texts.

A challenge unique to Black Sikhs is that the way kesdhari Sikhs take care of their hair and tie it in turbans can be a challenge for someone with Black hair. I would recommend Gurpreet Kaur’s writing.

Resources

Being Black & Sikh

Articles by Gurpreet Kaur

I would also suggest checking out The Black Sikh Collective on Tumblr, Instagram & Facebook for more perspectives of Black Sikhs.

-SK If this answer was helpful, SK accepts tips here: https://ko-fi.com/skaur | Venmo & Cashapp: skaur1699

[thebellekeys]

My Year of (Educational) Podcasts

I spent 12,000 minutes this year listening to podcasts according to Spotify. No, I do not listen to alphamale or girlboss or true crime podcasts– I mostly listen to history, philosophy, and literature podcasts i.e. educational podcasts. Here are 12 fun, well-executed podcasts I’d recommend if you’d like to learn more about your favourite (Humanities and Social Sciences) topics.

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. This is a podcast about the history of sex and sexuality. The podcast pays special attention to overlooked aspects of queer history, pop culture, and cultural superstitions. The love life and sex life of historical and artistic figures are also discussed with historians.

Dan Snow's History Hit. This podcasts discusses the most exciting and culturally relevant historical events and figures with expert panel guests. Clears up historical misconceptions and deals with the most interesting topics in an engaging way.

Occult Confessions. This podcast is about the history of the occult, witches, folklore, magicians, and conspiracies. There are discussions of folklore, religious history, and cults. The themes are dark but quite fascinating.

Intelligence Squared. This podcast is centered on cultural and academic debates and deep-dives into polemical topics among top UK experts. I really enjoy their episodes about writers, art, and artists.

The History of Literature. This is about, well, the history of literature i.e. the contexts that created impressive writers, literary movements, and literary works. It also debates and critically discusses classic works.

The Korea File. Y'all know I love kpop and kdramas and by extension, am quite fascinated by Korean culture and society given how much I interact with Korean media. This podcast, produced by a couple of Korean guys, critically explores Korean media, culture, society, and history.

Not Just the Tudors. A fun history podcast that doesn't only cover English Tudor history, but definitely covers a whole damn lot of English Tudor history. Mainly focuses on 13th-17th century global history.

Classical Stuff You Should Know. A podcast about the classical world, the Western Canon, and world philosophy. Discussions of the classics are in conversational layman terms. Topics not restricted to the Graeco-Roman world.

Why Theory. A podcast that uses philosophy and psychological theory to examine culture, history, art and human behavior. Lots of pertinent contemporary social topics are discussed.

Brown History. A podcast about South Asia and "brown" Asian demographics. A wide range of topics, from Pakistani history to the Indian diaspora to Afghan migration to the colonization of India by Great Britain.

Philosophize This!. This podcast covers philosophy, philosophies, and philosophers. I highly recommend listening to the episodes in order as much as possible. Breaks down the complex philosophical ideas using simple terms.

The Thing About Austen. This is a podcast about the world of Jane Austen from the time period to the people to the culture which influenced her big literary hits. Hits that sweet spot between literature and history in a creative way. Recommend for all the Pride and Prejudice (2005) fanatics.

[humanrightsupdates]

UN Report Portrays Afghanistan’s Destroyed Media

Taliban Threaten, Detain and Abuse Journalists, Media Workers

Today’s United Nations report on the state of Afghanistan’s media is devastating.

Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, they have largely destroyed Afghanistan’s media landscape, creating such a climate of fear that Afghan journalists cannot genuinely investigate or report. The Taliban have detained and tortured journalists, severely limited what the media can report, and worked directly in newsrooms to suppress any critical content.

The report, produced by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), documents numerous occasions in which journalists were detained for either trying to report on events or for publishing or airing reports that included criticism of Taliban policies. For example, in August 2023, the Taliban’s intelligence agency arrested at least seven journalists across the country for allegedly providing information to “diaspora media” abroad. The UN documented 256 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists and media workers since the Taliban takeover.

Additionally, Afghanistan’s media are also required to seek approval from the authorities prior to publishing a report and are subjected to other forms of censorship. Media cannot publish on topics that could “have a negative impact on public opinion or could weaken people’s morale.”

[fatehbaz]

Midway through Jamil Jan Kochai’s collection The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, which maps generations of Afghan and Afghan American lives against over a century of entwined wars, sits what appears to be a résumé. Entitled “Occupational Hazards,” it meticulously records the everyday labors of an Afghan man: [...] his “[d]uties included: leading sheep to the pastures”; from 1977–79, “gathering old English rifles” left over from the last war while being recruited into a new war; in 1980–81, “burying the tattered remnants of neighbors and friends and women and children and babies and cousins and nieces and nephews and a beloved half-sister”; [...] becoming a refugee day-laborer in Peshawar, Pakistan; in 1984, becoming a refugee in Alabama, where he worked on an assembly line with other Asian migrants whom the white factory owner used to push out the local Black workforce; and so on. Dozens of events, from the traumatic to the mundane, are cataloged one by one in prose that is at once emotionless and overwhelming. [...] Kochai interviewed his father for the résumé’s occupational trajectory [...]. An Afghan shepherd [...] is displaced by imperial wars and then, in the heart of empire, is conscripted into racialized domestic economies [...]. [M]ethodically translating lived violence via a résumé, a bureaucratic form that quantifies labor in its most banal functionality, paradoxically realizes the spectacular breadth of war and how it organizes life’s possibilities. [...]

---

In this collection, war is past, present, and plural. In Afghanistan, Kochai recounts the lives of Logaris and Kabulis, against the backdrop of the US occupation, still dealing with the detritus of previous wars - British, Soviet, a­nd civil - including their shrines, mines, and memories. In the United States, Afghan Californians experience the diasporic conditions of war -- state neglect of refugees combined with targeted surveillance -- amid the coming-of-age of a second generation that must confront inherited traumas while struggling to build political solidarities with other displaced youth.

These 12 stories explore the reverberations between historical and psychic realities, invoking a ghostly practice of reading. Characters, living and dead, recur across the stories [...]. Wars echo one another [...]. Scenes and states mirror each other, with one story depicting Afghan bureaucracies that disavow military and police violence while another depicts US bureaucracies that deny social services to unemployed refugees. History itself is layered and unresolved [...]. Kochai, who was born in a refugee camp in Peshawar, writes from the position of the Afghan diaspora [...]. In August 2021, the US relegated Afghanistan to the past, declaring the “longest American war” over. Over for whom? one should ask. [...] War, in other words, is not an event but a structure. [...]

---

In Kochai’s collection, war is not the story; rather, war arranges the scenes and life possibilities [...]. Kochai carefully puts war itself, and the warmakers, in the narrative background [...].

This is a historically incisive narrative design for representing Afghanistan. Kochai challenges centuries of Western colonial discourses, from Rudyard Kipling to Rambo, that conflate Afghanistan with violence while erasing the international production of that violence as well as the social and conceptual worlds of Afghans themselves. Instead, this collection moves the reader across Afghans’ transcontinental, intergenerational, and multispirited social worlds -- including through stories of migrations and returns, homes populated by the living and the martyred, language that enmeshes Dari, Pashto, and Northern California slang, as well as the occasional fantastical creature [...].

---

Like Kochai’s debut novel 99 Nights in Logar (2019), this collection merges realism and the fantastic, oral and academic histories, Afghan folklore and Islamic texts, giving his fiction a dynamic relation to history. Each story is an experiment, and many of them are replete with surreal or magical elements [...].

As in Ahmed Saadawi’s 2013 novel Frankenstein in Baghdad, a nightmarish sensorium collides with a postcolonial body politics [...].

In a recent interview, Kochai said that writing about his family’s experiences of war has compelled him to explore “realms of the surreal or magical realism […] because the incidents themselves seem so unreal […]. [I]t takes years and decades to even come to terms with what had actually happened to them before their eyes.” He points not to a documentary dilemma but to an epistemological one. While some scholars have argued that fantastic genres like magical realism are often conflated with exoticized imaginaries of the Global South, others have defended the form’s critical possibilities for rendering complex realities and multiple modes of interpretation. Literary metaphors, whether magical or otherwise, are always imprecise; as Afghan poet Aria Aber puts it, “you flee into metaphor but you return / with another moth / flapping inside your throat.” [...]

Kochai does not “escape” into the surreal or magical as fictions but as other ways of reckoning with war’s pasts ongoing in the present.

---

All text above by: Najwa Mayer. “War Is a Structure: On Jamil Jan Kochai’s “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories.”“ LA Review of Books (Online). 20 December 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[mariacallous]

Election day could have been a violent tragedy. Just two weeks before Americans went to the polls, US officials confirmed that Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) was behind a thwarted terror plot. A twenty-seven-year-old Afghan man, who had resettled in the United States after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, had planned to carry out a mass shooting targeting large groups of people on November 4. IS-K, an affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), had been in direct communication with the would-be attacker. 

IS-K was formed in 2015 and operates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Initially, the group seemed to focus on recruitment and on conducting attacks within Afghanistan. The group experienced a slowdown between 2018 and 2021 because of US and Afghan military operations targeting the group in Afghanistan. The Taliban, too, fought against IS-K during this period. However, after the US troop withdrawal in 2021, the Taliban became the only force combating the group on the ground, which allowed the terrorist organization to regroup and build operations in Afghanistan and beyond. With this resurgence, IS-K seems to have pivoted its strategy away from attacks within Afghanistan to a more global agenda.

In the first half of 2024, IS-K carried out three successful attacks abroad that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Iran, Turkey, and Russia. The attack in Moscow on Crocus City Hall, which claimed the lives of more than 140 people, made headlines and stoked fears of a resurgent and coordinated global IS-K threat. The success of the attack might also provide motivation for the group to attempt similar mass casualty attacks elsewhere. 

In addition to these attacks, there have been a number of publicly disclosed foiled plots and arrests connected to IS-K across the globe. Authorities reportedly disrupted IS-K plots to attack the Olympic Games in Paris and Taylor Swift concerts in Austria this past summer. In August, a United Nations official called IS-K the “greatest” terror threat to Europe. And the threat is not only in Europe; eight Tajik nationals suspected of connections to ISIS were arrested this year after entering the United States. 

IS-K is simultaneously increasing its online propaganda output and tailoring it to a wider audience. Last summer, IS-K began releasing more multilingual content, with an uptick in Uzbek- and Tajik-language materials in particular. Shortly after the Crocus City Hall attack, a media group connected with IS-K created a new Tajik-language magazine, a change from its infrequent and low-profile usage of Tajik in previous materials. 

US officials have reported that the group has rolled out a “sophisticated propaganda campaign” targeting disaffected individuals in the Muslim diaspora to carry out attacks in Western countries, including in the United States. This represents an expansion from previous recruitment efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. On top of the group’s new efforts, Israel’s war in Gaza has also likely contributed to radicalizing a new generation.

There is another change that further complicates US and European counterterrorism efforts: Russia is making the IS-K threat worse. 

Two weeks before the Crocus City Hall attack, the United States alerted Russia about the possibility of an impending terrorist strike on large gatherings in Moscow. The public warnings and private communication on the matter with Russian authorities in the lead-up to the attack proved futile. Only three days before the tragic attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the warning, citing it as “propaganda” meant to “intimidate and destabilize” Russian society.

Intelligence sharing has been an integral part of counterterrorism efforts since 9/11, and the United States and Russia have successfully cooperated on the issue in the past. But the deterioration of US-Russian relations amid the Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a greater blind spot in the US response to the global threat of IS-K. It remains unclear whether Russia simply didn’t trust the Western tip or failed to react effectively to it, although both constitute a faulty policy with deadly consequences.

In addition, most Central Asians recruited to IS-K have been radicalized in Russia. For decades, Russia has been a major destination for Central Asian migrants seeking work, but the harsh living conditions, economic struggles, and widespread hostility they face there make this population more vulnerable to extremist ideologies. Central Asians, particularly Tajiks, have been involved in much of IS-K’s recent activities, with some experts estimating that they may make up as much as half of the group’s recruits. With Russia a fertile recruiting ground for Central Asians, who make up much of IS-K’s ranks, Moscow’s counterterrorism policy would play a key role in mitigating the threat. 

In response to the March attack, Russia has tightened restrictions on Central Asian migrants. In the summer, the State Duma passed a new batch of laws that curb the rights of migrants, while raids against migrant communities have become more frequent. These official actions, accompanied by increased instances of xenophobia on the street, contribute to a growing hostile environment for Central Asians in Russia. These hardships, which have pushed some to extremism already, will likely worsen as Putin’s crackdown continues, leaving an already vulnerable population even more exposed to IS-K’s recruitment pitch. 

Russia has shown no clear intention to effectively tackle the growing threat of IS-K. The Kremlin has blamed the Crocus City Hall attack and others on the West or Kyiv, likely as an attempt to deflect responsibility for failing to stop the attacks. Moscow remains an unreliable partner with a diminishing willingness to engage in counterterrorism cooperation while pursuing ineffective policies to mitigate this threat. Indeed, its policies likely created more fertile ground for recruitment in the country. 

US policymakers should expect a growing blind spot coming out of Russia resulting from Moscow’s ineffective counterterrorism measures and increasingly hostile policy to a population already vulnerable to extremist recruitment. Russia cannot be relied on to deal with this threat, which makes the attention of the United States and its allies on this issue all the more urgent.

[beardedmrbean]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would have made California the first U.S. state to outlaw caste-based discrimination.

Caste is a division of people related to birth or descent. Those at the lowest strata of the caste system, known as Dalits, have been pushing for legal protections in California and beyond. They say it is necessary to protect them from bias in housing, education and in the tech sector — where they hold key roles.

Earlier this year, Seattle became the first U.S. city to add caste to its anti-discrimination laws. On Sept. 28, Fresno became the second U.S. city and the first in California to prohibit discrimination based on caste by adding caste and indigeneity to its municipal code.

In his message Newsom called the bill “unnecessary,” explaining that California “already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed.”

“Because discrimination based on caste is already prohibited under these existing categories, this bill is unnecessary,” he said in the statement.

A United Nations report in 2016 said at least 250 million people worldwide still face caste discrimination in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Pacific regions, as well as in various diaspora communities. Caste systems are found among Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Muslims and Sikhs.

Proponents of the bill launched a hunger strike in early September pushing for the law’s passage. During their campaign, many Californians have come forward with stories of discrimination in the workplace, housing and education. Opponents, including some Hindu groups, called the proposed legislation “unconstitutional” and have said it would unfairly target Hindus and people of Indian descent. The issue caused deep divisions in the Indian American community. Hundreds on both sides came to Sacramento to testify at committee hearings in the state senate and assembly.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, the Oakland-based Dalit rights group that has been leading the movement to end caste discrimination nationwide, said she still views this moment as a victory for caste-oppressed people who have “organized and built amazing power and awareness on this issue.”

“We made history conducting the first advocacy days, caravans, and hunger strike for caste equity,” she said. “We made the world aware that caste exists in the U.S. and our people need a remedy from this violence. A testament to our organizing is in Newsom’s veto where he acknowledges that caste is currently covered. So while we wipe our tears and grieve, know that we are not defeated.”

The Hindu American Foundation and Coalition of Hindus of North America claimed Newsom's veto as a victory for their advocacy efforts.

“With the stroke of his pen, Governor Newsom has averted a civil rights and constitutional disaster that would have put a target on hundreds of thousands of Californians simply because of their ethnicity or their religious identity, as well as create a slippery slope of facially discriminatory laws,” said Samir Kalra, the Hindu American Foundation's managing director.

In March, state Sen. Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California Legislature, introduced the bill. The California law would have included caste as a sub-category under ethnicity — a protected category under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

Nirmal Singh, a Bakersfield resident and member of Californians for Caste Equity, said the introduction of this bill “represents a shifting tide in California to understand caste-based discrimination.” Singh also represents Ravidassia community, many of whom are Dalits with roots in Punjab, India.

“The fact that caste-oppressed people were given a platform to stand up for our basic human rights is a huge win in and of itself,” he said.

Earlier this week, Republican state Sens. Brian Jones and Shannon Grove called on Newsom to veto the bill, which they said will “not only target and racially profile South Asian Californians, but will put other California residents and businesses at risk and jeopardize our state’s innovate edge.”

Jones said he has received numerous calls from Californians in opposition.

“We don’t have a caste system in America or California, so why would we reference it in law, especially if caste and ancestry are already illegal,” he said in a statement.

Grove said the law could potentially open up businesses to unnecessary or frivolous lawsuits.

A 2016 Equality Labs survey of 1,500 South Asians in the U.S. showed 67% of Dalits who responded reported being treated unfairly because of their caste.

A 2020 survey of Indian Americans by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found caste discrimination was reported by 5% of survey respondents. While 53% of foreign-born Hindu Indian Americans said they affiliate with a caste group, only 34% of U.S.-born Hindu Indian Americans said they do the same.

[tatert07s]

I do feel bad for Central Asians that recommend A Bride’s Story to other people, and or rely on that manga series as a source of “representation” because on the lack of real representation we get in pop culture media.

It is rather upsetting that the media we get about Central Asians is being grouped with West Asians, and or having just Afghanistan be the core to Central Asian media. When the way Afghanistan is exhibited in the media is always associated with terrorism and the Islamic regime happening in the country, but never or rarely any positive representation of Afghans whether it’s showing off their culture. Not to mention the semi-Orientalist casting when it comes to Afghans by having Asians not from Afghanistan at all, being a portrayal of Afghans. Also, the American military propaganda showing off how “heroic” soldiers are for fighting in Afghanistan, when they’re literally participating in modern-day colonialism.

Or Borat, god fuck Borat. You have an insanely racist, British Zionist actor that used a village in Romania with Romani people, to “represent” the conditions of Kazakhstan. While having a main character, who doesn’t even look like a native Kazakh, playing this caricature of an oblivious Kazakh immigrant trying to become accustomed to American culture in the United States. But whenever Kazakhs from Kazakhstan say Borat is a dumbass movie, they get gaslit by white people trying to pass it off as “satire” when that movie has done irreparable damage to Kazakh diasporas in America, and native Kazakhs from Kazakhstan. They will always find a way to mention Borat while talking to a regular Kazakh.

God, we deserve so much better. I don’t fucking care that in America, Central Asians have the smallest population when it comes to Central Asian Americans or immigrants, that is not an excuse as to why we have 0 positive representation of our people. We deserve to be recognized as people. Heck, we’re not even a racial category in the United States Census. That’s absurd. Even Russia or other Eastern European media, Central Asians are always portrayed as poor and illiterate migrant workers.

[mywifeleftme]

294: Nashenas // Life is a Heavy Burden

Life is a Heavy Burden Nashenas 2022, Strut (Bandcamp)

Nashenas is one of Afghanistan’s most beloved twentieth century singers. Born in Kandahar in 1935, he was raised in Karachi, British India (now Pakistan) before his family returned to Afghanistan during his adolescence. By his early 20s he had become a popular vocalist, with a weekly national radio slot singing traditional poetry, adaptations of popular Bollywood songs, and (with increasing frequency) his own compositions in Dari and Pashto.

Most of his work is in the ghazal tradition, a form of Arabo-Persian poetic ode (classically a simultaneous address to an absent lover and to God) that has remained popular in the East for nearly 1,500 years. The songs have a meditative consistency of rhythm, his vocals carrying the melody as he accompanies himself with drones on the harmonium while a tabla player supplies percussion, verses broken by instrumental refrains that answer the vocal melody. Nashenas has a panged yet resigned style suitable to the form, never leaning into cheap emotional theatrics. He spools out his words patiently, great feeling leavened by enlightened reservation. I picture him with his eyes closed, sitting cross-legged as he hums and croons the words that billow from the incense burning within him till the room has filled with it. Despite the focus on his voice though, this is quite dynamic music: the drumming on songs like “Life is a Heavy Burden” provides a raw, intense counterpoint to Nashenas’s steady vocal, while the blissful harmonium drone of “I Am Happy Alone” finds a common note with the primary colours of music made by children, outsider folkies, and the untrained.

Physical media wasn’t common in Afghanistan when Nashenas was establishing himself, and radio broadcasts were the primary outlet for performers. What recordings he did make were largely for radio archives, and many of these were apparently destroyed in the wars that have ravaged the region for decades. As a result, little of Nashenas’s prime is well-documented, and prior to this compilation virtually none of what does exist had been released in the West. Life is a Heavy Burden: The Songs and Poetry of Nashenas collects highlights from a brief run of Iranian 45 pressings of Radio Afghanistan recordings from the late ‘50s. The liners elaborate:

Although hard to fully confirm, it appeared these records were part of an arrangement between someone in Radio Afghanistan and Royal, one of the major labels in Iran. …Recordings were presumably supplied to the pressing plant in Tehran to be manufactured and then sold to the Afghan diaspora in the country, or exported back to Afghanistan. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with a few singles released by Nashenas, Zaland, his wife Sara, and others such as Ustad Mahwash, Ghulam Dastagir Shaida, and Ahmad Wali. Whoever arranged it apparently did not inform the artists themselves!

You’d never know how screamingly rare these pieces are, or that they were not sourced from masters, from the job Strut Records has done with Life is a Heavy Burden. The fidelity is brilliant, clearly of another epoch in terms of technology but unmarred by the dust and rough handling endured by near-70-year-old second-hand discs. I’d recommend this one to anyone with an interest in mid-century music from the Middle East and South Asia, or its influence on Western pop and experimental music from the ‘60s onward.

294/365

[athenawasamerf]

with respect, while i think it's inappropriate and racist to assume palestinian men are the same as any other muslim man, i WOULD say the behavior of the arab and/or muslim diaspora in the west (not strictly male either) has not exactly dispelled the idea that there is widespread for terrorist action among that population. just because we don't like it doesn't make it not true.

this doesn't change my pro-palestine position on the israel/palestine conflict but i do have a strongly negative opinion of most of the (overwhelmingly, non-palestinian) diaspora and their behavior in this context. they are just as much out of touch westerners living a cushy life and begging to see blood.

My problem with the post that (I believe) inspired this ask is the racist coalition of all Middle Eastern cultures into one monolith. Equating all Islamic terrorist organisations with each other due to a lack of understanding of the differences between cultures and countries is a big enough problem when it comes to fighting extremist ideology and terror groupes, nevermind when it comes to conversations about an ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide. Bringing up a 2-decade old Al-Qaeda, an Afghan-Pakistani terror organisation, attack on the U.S. in a conversation about the atrocities committed against Palestinian women as some kind of gotcha is incredibly racist, and I don’t think I need to mention how tone deaf the timing is. Al-Qaeda does not exist, and has never existed, in Palestine.

If we were to have a conversation about the Arab and Muslim diaspora in the west and the effect of their actions on the widespread image of the Middle East among western populations, that is not the place to start it. And, more importantly, this is not the time to have such a conversation. I understand that western cultures have become increasingly individualistic, but that is not the case in the global east. We are in a state of collective mourning. We’ve cancelled all national celebrations, events, and demonstrations. My med school is cancelling all graduation activities apart from the official ceremony to hand us our degrees and have us swear the Hippocratic oath, which will be held with no music or press coverage, and without an after party. Marriage ceremonies are being held in silence with no wedding parties. Birthday celebrations are being held off. The black ribbon of mourning has been placed on all tv channels and will not be removed until 3 days after a ceasefire is enacted. Our neighbours are going through a catastrophe, there are manners to be observed. We don’t even put the tv on too loud if a neighbour is sick, nevermind dead or dying. When our neighbours, our family, our people are being massacred in front of our eyes with the sanctions of the entire world, we mourn with them and we mind our manners while we do it. That is all to say, when the entire region is in a state of mourning is absolutely the least appropriate timing for this kind of conversation, despite its importance.

When brown people aren’t being massacred by the thousands, and displaced by the hundreds of thousands, we can talk about the behaviour of the brown diaspora in the west. Until then, we mourn.

I apologise if I’m not entirely coherent, I’m very sick at the moment, quite literally in the middle of finals for my last year of med school, and completely overwhelmed with the insanity going on in the world at the moment, especially after Egypt was targeted twice. Our government had to double the rolling blackout duration to two hours a day after Israel decided to cut off all fuel exports to Egypt to put pressure on the government to agree to Israel’s plan of displacing over 2 million Palestinians into Sinai. So, things haven’t been great here either and people are preparing for the non-zero chance that our hand could be forced into war.

[gkfarming]

Haryana was part of the Kuru Kingdom during the Vedic era during 1200 BCE.

Haryana has been inhabited since the pre-historic period. Haryana was part of the Indus Valley civilization during the Bronze Age period. The ancient sites of Rakhigarhi and Bhirrana are some of the oldest Indus Valley civilization sites.(5) Haryana was part of the Kuru Kingdom during the Vedic era during 1200 BCE.(6)(7)(8) The area now Haryana has been ruled by some of the major empires of India. The Pushyabhuti dynasty ruled the region in the 7th century, with its capital at Thanesar. Harsha was a prominent king of the dynasty.(9) The Tomara dynasty ruled the region from 8th to 12th century. The Chahamanas of Shakambhari defeated them in the 12th century.(10)

Harsha Ka Tila mound, ruins from the reign of 7th century ruler Harsha.

Lal kot built by Anangpal Tomar in 1052

Portrait of Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, who fought and won across North India from the Punjab to Bengal, winning 22 straight battles.(11)

In 1192, Chahamanas were defeated by Ghurids in Second Battle of Tarain.(10) In 1398, Timur attacked and sacked the cities of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Sunam, Kaithal and Panipat.(12)(13) In the First Battle of Panipat (1526), Babur defeated the Lodis. Hem Chandra Vikramaditya claimed royal status after defeating Akbar's Mughal forces on 7 October 1556 in the Battle of Delhi. In the Second Battle of Panipat (1556), Akbar defeated the local Haryanvi Hindu Emperor of Delhi, who belonged to Rewari. Hem Chandra Vikramaditya had won 22 battles across India from Punjab to Bengal, defeating the Mughals and Afghans. Hemu had defeated Akbar's forces twice at Agra and the Battle of Delhi in 1556 to become the last Hindu Emperor of India with a formal coronation at Purana Quila in Delhi on 7 October 1556. In the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas.(14)

In 1966, the Punjab Reorganisation Act (1966) came into effect, resulting in the creation of the state of Haryana on 1 November 1966.(15)

Distribution

Haryanvis within Haryana

See also: Demography of Haryana

The main communities in Haryana are Gujjar, Jat, Brahmin, Agarwal, Ahir, Chamar, Nai, Ror,Rajput, Saini, Kumhar, Bishnoi etc.(16) Punjabi khatri and Sindhi refugees who migrated from Pakistan had settled in large numbers in Haryana and delhi.

Haryanvi diaspora overseas

(icon)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2021)

See also: Indian disaspora overseas

There is increasingly large diaspora of Haryanvis in Australia, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, USA, etc.

In Australia, the community lives mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, has set up Association of Haryanvis in Australia (AHA) which organise events.(17)

In Singapore, the community has set up the Singapore Haryanvi Kunba organisation in 2012 which also has a Facebook group of same name. Singapore has Arya Samaj and several Hindu temples.

Culture

Main article: Haryanvi culture

Language

Main article: Haryanvi language

Haryanvi, like Khariboli and Braj is a branch of the Western Hindi dialect, and it is written in Devanagari script.(18)

Folk music and dance

Main article: Music of Haryana

Folk music is integral part of Haryanvi culture. Folk song are sung during occasion of child birth, wedding, festival, and Satsang (singing religious songs).(2) Some haryanvi folk songs which are sung by young woman and girls are Phagan, katak, Samman, Jatki, Jachcha, Bande-Bandee, Santhene. Some songs which are sung by older women are Mangal geet, Bhajan, Sagai, bhat, Kuan pujan, Sanjhi and Holi. Folk songs are sung in Tar or Mandra stan.(19) Some dances are Khoriya, Chaupaiya, Loor, Been, Ghoomar, Dhamal, Phaag, Sawan and Gugga.(19)

Cuisine

Haryana is agricultural state known for producing foodgrains such as wheat, barley, pearl millet, maize, rice and high-quality dairy. Daily village meal in Haryana consist of a simple thali of roti, paired with a leafy stir-fry (saag in dishes such as gajar methi or aloo palak), condiments such as chaas, chutney, pickles. Some known Haryanvi dishes are green choliya (green chickpeas), bathua yogurt, bajre ki roti, sangri ki sabzi (beans), kachri ki chutney (wild cucumber) and bajre ki khichdi. Some sweets are panjiri and pinni prepared by unrefined sugar like bura and shakkar and diary. Malpua are popular during festivals.(20)

Clothes

See also: History of clothing in the Indian subcontinent and History of Textile industry in India

Traditional attire for men is turban, shirt, dhoti, jutti and cotton or woollen shawl. Traditional attire for female is typically an orhna (veil), shirt or angia (short blouse), ghagri (heavy long skirt) and Jitti. Saris are also worn. Traditionally the Khaddar (coarse cotton weave cloth) is a frequently used as the fabric.(21)(22)

Cinema

See also: Haryanvi cinema and List of Haryanvi-language films

The First movie of Haryanvi cinema is Dharti which was released in 1968. The first financially successful Haryanvi movie was Chandrawal (1984) which spurted the continuing production of Haryanvi films, although none have been as successful.(23) Other films such as Phool Badan and Chora Haryane Ka followed with only about one out of twelve films being profitable at the box office.(23) In 2000, Aswini Chowdhary won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director at the National Film Awards for the Haryanvi film Laddo.(24) In 2010 the government of Haryana announced they were considering establishing a film board to promote Haryanvi-language films.(25)

[eve-is-obsessed]

Thanks @chaoticrushu for tagging me!

Last movie/show I watched: My friends and I watched the first two episodes of The Owl House last night! It was super cute.

Currently watching: Fleabag season 2. I love it so muchhh. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a genius.

Currently reading: For a book club, I'm reading a short story collection called The Haunting of Hajji Hotak - it's about Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America and it's very good. I'm also rereading Circe, which is one of my favorite books.

Current obsession: To no one's surprise, Critical Role. I'm almost done with Campaign 1, which is crazy to me (I'm on episode 100/114!) and Delilah is back and the brainrot is real.

Tagging @bertandfearnie, @apocalypselog, @autumn-lullaby, and anyone else who wants to <3

[lightelfearthling]

“He was considered a hero,” the uncle said. One of Naceer’s brothers even called on him to “finish the job” and “kill Fakhria.” For the Afghan diaspora, the only reason for this violence was that “Fakhria was seeing another man,” and therefore, Naceer was right to attack her.'

[sa7abnews]

The Taliban is celebrating 3 years in power, but they’re not talking about Afghans

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/the-taliban-is-celebrating-3-years-in-power-but-theyre-not-talking-about-afghans/

The Taliban is celebrating 3 years in power, but they’re not talking about Afghans

The Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their return to power Wednesday at a former U.S. air base in Afghanistan, but there was no mention of the country’s hardships or promises to help the struggling population.Under blue skies and blazing sunshine at the Bagram base — once the center of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks — members of the Taliban Cabinet lauded achievements such as strengthening Islamic law and establishing a military system that provides “peace and security.”TALIBAN PUBLICLY FLOGS 63 IN AFGHANISTAN, INCLUDING WOMEN, DRAWING UN CONDEMNATIONThe speeches were aimed at an international audience, urging the diaspora to return and for the West to interact and cooperate with the country’s rulers. No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.”The Islamic Emirate eliminated internal differences and expanded the scope of unity and cooperation in the country,” Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir said, using the Taliban’s term to describe their government. “No one will be allowed to interfere in internal affairs, and Afghan soil will not be used against any country.”None of the four speakers talked about the challenges facing Afghans in everyday life.Women were barred from the event, including female journalists from The Associated Press, Agence French-Presse and Reuters. The Taliban did not give a reason for barring them.Decades of conflict and instability have left millions of Afghans on the brink of hunger and starvation. Unemployment is high.The Bagram parade was the Taliban’s grandest and most defiant since regaining control of the country in August 2021.The audience of some 10,000 men included senior Taliban officials such as Acting Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob and Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was not at the parade.The Taliban said foreign diplomats also attended, but did not specify who.Aid agencies warn that humanitarian efforts in the country are gravely underfunded as economic collapse and climate change destroy livelihoods.They say that Afghans, particularly women and girls, will suffer if there isn’t more diplomatic engagement with the Taliban.The Bagram parade was also an opportunity to showcase some of the military hardware abandoned by U.S. and NATO-led forces after decades of war, including helicopters, Humvees and tanks.Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorcycle formation carried the Taliban flag.Pickup trucks crammed with men of all ages drove through Kabul’s streets in celebration of the takeover. Some men posed for photos with rifles.In a parade in southern Helmand province, men held yellow canisters to represent the type of explosives used in roadside bombings during the war.The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday. As in previous years, women did not take part in anniversary festivities.

[shattered-pieces]

Afghan journalist and feminist Kobra Hassani, who was detained in Russia while trying to sail to the European Union, flew to Afghanistan. The girl’s lawyers reported this to Fontanka with reference to information from the Afghan diaspora. Four months ago, in February, a judge of the Kirov District Court sentenced Hassani and ordered her release because she had served her sentence in a pre-trial detention center for violating immigration laws. At the same time, the decision to deport her to Afghanistan was canceled, and she was released from the center for illegal immigrants (TSVSIG) in Krasnoe Selo. However, it was impossible for her to obtain legal status in Russia: she was denied asylum. Lawyers and the Afghan diaspora tried to help her leave in a safe direction: the girl was in danger in her homeland, since she openly opposed the Taliban*, who came to power in the country three years ago, and led a lifestyle that did not meet the demands of radical Islamists. In particular, before the change in the political regime, she received a higher education, worked on television, advocated for women's rights, and ran her own restaurant. She fled Afghanistan in 2021. First, the girl ended up in Tajikistan, then on the territory of Ukraine, and then she was deceived and taken to Moscow. She was handcuffed back in May 2022, after being detained at the entrance to the Grand Port; the trial lasted from October 2023. For several months after the verdict, Kobra Hassani was not able to leave Russia: the undertaking not to leave was in effect until she was given a court decision in her native language (Farsi). At the same time, the prosecutor's office filed an appeal against the verdict against her and twelve other natives of Afghanistan who were involved in the case of trying to illegally cross the border towards the EU with her. On June 25, during the last hearing to appeal the verdict, Hassani, according to her lawyers, flew from Moscow to the Afghan capital, Kabul. Defenders say they learned about this from representatives of the Afghan diaspora in St. Petersburg. “There were many options to leave, from Albania to Germany. But everything required effort, time, money,” lawyer Maria Belyaeva told Fontanka. According to her colleague Elena Fadeeva, Hassani probably no longer had the strength to stay in Russia and saw no other viable option for herself other than returning to Afghanistan - despite the risks. Previously, lawyers had repeatedly noted that the girl could face the death penalty in her homeland. Hassani is expected to fly to Kabul on the morning of June 26. In the appeal, the prosecutor's office asked to recalculate the deduction of days served in custody from the assigned term in a penal colony (in the case of Hassani - two years). The judges of the City Court denied this to the department.

https://t.me/fontankaspb/60358

[mariacallous]

Afghan journalist Kobra Hassani, who fled Afghanistan and applied for asylum in Russia after the Taliban came to power, flew from Moscow to Kabul on Tuesday, the St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka has reported.

In May 2023, a Russian court ordered for Hassani to be deported from Russia. Later, she was charged with attempting to illegally leave Russia for the E.U. as part of a group and by prior conspiracy. In January 2024, her asylum application was denied. The following month, the court found her guilty of the border crossing charges but ruled that her sentence had been served during her time in pre-trial detention and overturned her deportation order.

According to Hassani’s lawyers, there were a number of countries where she could try again to obtain asylum, “from Albania to Germany,” but they all would have required “effort, time, and money.”

Hassani’s lawyers said they learned of her departure from members of the Afghan diaspora in St. Petersburg. Her lawyer Yelena Fadeeva speculated that her defendant “no longer had the strength” to remain in Russia and “didn’t see any realistic options” apart from returning to Afghanistan.

Before the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Hassani worked as a TV journalist there and was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. She has previously said that she would face “death and persecution by the Taliban” if she returned to the country.

[typotipau]

“I want to be a catalyst for generating thoughtful, high-quality, critical and beautiful art and design that is produced by Afghanistan and those in its diaspora,” says the California-based artist.