In its present form, it owes its existence to the 19th Century “”Great Game”" played out between the British and Russian Empires. Essentially, the great Hindu Kush Range, together with an even more inaccessible section of the Pamir Mountains, were designated as an all-but-impassable barrier between Russian and British spheres of influence. An unlikely panhandle of land, the Wakhan Corridor, extended this divide eastward to the Chinese province of Xinjiang, completing a geographical cordon sanitaire between Central and Southern Asia.

As a consequence of this imperial diplomacy, Afghanistan has remained a peripheral land, a nation without a real centre. Various peoples of Turkic, and South Asian origins surround the central Hindu Kush massif, but no single group absolutely dominates the land. A further complication is that all the major ethnic groups represented in Afghanistan spill over into neighboring countries, with the result that no genuine sense of national cohesion has ever emerged.

To the south and east of the Hindu Kush, dominating the capital Kabul and major cities like Jalalabad, Khost and Kandahar, live the Pashtun. This major group numbers about 6.5 million within Afghanistan, while a similar number live across the frontier in Pakistan. Almost exclusively Sunni Hanafi Muslims, they speak various Pashto dialects. Pashtuns form around 50-55% of the population of Afghanistan, and have been its traditional (though rarely undisputed) rulers.

Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of modern Afghanistan in the mid-18th century, was a Pashtun. So is Mohammed Zahir Shah, the former king ousted in 1973 and now in exile in Rome. So are virtually all the Taliban, especially the leadership including Mullah Omar, now believed to be in charge of the defense of Kandahar, and Mullah Dadullah, surrounded and holding out at Kunduz, Taliban’s last stronghold in hostile tribal territories north of the Hindu Kush.

Not all Pashtuns support Taliban, however. Pashtun support for Taliban seems to have melted away over several years and, more specifically, in recent weeks. The moderate Pashtun leader Abdul Haq who was captured and killed by Taliban in early November, 2001, was desperately seeking to put together an anti-Taliban Pashtun tribal alliance. Hamid Karzai, a prominent Pashtun leader and official representative of former King Zahir Shah, is currently pursuing the same complex goal in the hills of Uruzgan Province, north of Kandahar.

Pashtuns may not agree on everything, but they do agree on the absolute necessity of maintaining their tribal primacy in any Afghan government. One reason for this is their hostility towards, and fear of, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. This diverse band of mutually suspicious ethnic groups dominates the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, and looks more towards Central Asia than to Pakistan for cultural inspiration and military backing.

The most powerful group in the Northern Alliance are the Tajiks, numbering around 3.5 million within Afghanistan and dominating the mountainous northeast of the country, especially Badakshan Province. Mostly speakers of Dari, a language related to Persian, they are nearly all Sunni Hanafi Muslims, though there are a small number of “”Mountain Tajiks”" in the remote Pamir region who are Ismaili followers of the Aga Khan.

The nominal head of the Northern Alliance and leader of the Jamiat-e-Islami party, Burhanuddin Rabbani, is a Tajik, as was the “”Lion of the Panjshir”", Ahmad Shah Massoud, assassinated by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in early September. Other prominent Tajiks include Dr Abdullah Abdullah, the alliance’s foreign minister, and the new military strongman, Mohammed Fahim, who has replaced Ahmad Shah Massoud. The Tajik group around Rabbani draw much of their support from the Russians, who regard them as a bastion against the spread of Taliban-style Sunni fundamentalism into the countries of former Soviet Central Asia.

Immediately to the west of the Tajik heartland, centering on the dusty plains around the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, live the alliance’s second largest contingent, the Uzbeks. This Turkic people, numbering around one million within Afghanistan, are uniformly Sunni Hanafi Muslims with strong links to neighboring Uzbekistan. Their strongman, Abdul Rashid Dostum, heads the Uzbek-dominated Jombesh-e-Melli Islami or National Islamic Party, and has a reputation both for brutality and as a political chameleon. Dostum draws much of his support from Turkey, and has indicated that he is prepared to allow the forces of Tajik General Mohammed Fahim to take the lead in Kabul–provided that the predominantly Uzbek city of Mazar-i-Sharif remains his personal fiefdom.

The third constituent in the disparate group that make up the Northern Alliance are the Hazara, a predominantly Mongol people numbering around 900,000 who inhabit the central Hindu Kush, especially the area known as Hazarajat centered on the remote town of Chakcharan. Amongst the poorest people in Afghanistan, the Hazara speak a dialect of Dari and are nearly all Shia’ Muslims. This brought them into particularly bitter conflict with the Sunni ideologues of Taliban, and some of the hardest fighting of recent years was around the largely Hazara settlement of Bamiyan–until last February home to the largest standing Buddha figures in the world. The Hazara strongman, and head of the Hazara-dominated Hezb-i-Wahdat or Unity Party, is Karim Khalili. He mistrusts his Tajik and Uzbek allies almost as much as he does the Pashtuns.

There are numerous other ethnic groups in Afghanistan–notably the Turkmen and Kyrgyz of the north, the Baluch of the southwest, and the Nuristanis of the east. None have any serious military or political clout, however. The only real player outside Taliban and the Northern Alliance is Ismail Khan. This Tajik warrior liberated the western Afghan city of Herat from the communists and became its governor before being overthrown and locked up by the Taliban. Now he’s back in Herat at the head of a predominantly Tajik militia.

So where does this complex ethnic patch work leave the negotiators who will try to put together a broad-based national government for Afghanistan? Clearly, significant Pashtun involvement is a sine qua non for such an enterprise to succeed. Probably the best hope for the disparate peoples of Afghanistan, as well as for the West, is that Taliban will withdraw from Kandahar in the next few days, allowing power to pass to a respected and internationally acceptable Pashtun leader, most probably Hamid Karzai.

This would place one of the four main Afghan cities, Kandahar, squarely where it belongs–under Pashtun authority. Meanwhile Afghan real politik has already reasserted itself in Persian-leaning Herat where Ismail Khan is clearly in charge, as well as in Mazar-i-Sharif where General Dostum’s Uzbeks once again rule the roost.

But what of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and largest city? Kabul is predominantly a Pashtun city, though with substantial Tajik and Hazara representation. The destruction of Kabul between 1992 and 1996 was largely the result of fighting between the predominantly Pashtun forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the mainly Tajik supporters of Burhanuddin Rabbani.

The best bet for avoiding a replay of this struggle would probably be the return of former King Zahir Shah to Kabul–not as a monarch, but as a national figure held in respect by most Afghans (except the Taliban). In a best case scenario, the former king would then preside over a loya jirga, or gathering of tribal elders and leading politicians which would decide the ethnic composition of any future government, as well as the future status (if any) of the monarchy.

The expulsion or withdrawal of Taliban from Kandahar and the establishment of the former king’s representative, Hamid Karzai, in that battered city would be of major help in bringing this about. The problem is that Afghanistan is a country where events can move fast and political alliances unravel overnight. At present it looks as though the power of Taliban has finally been broken, but while the political and military struggle for Kandahar remains unresolved, things could quickly go wrong in Kabul.

The clearest sign of this so far has been the dispatch of one thousand heavily armed Hezb-i-Wahdat soldiers by Karim Khalili to “”support Hazara interests”" in Kabul. In a sense, the writing is already on the wall. With Ismail Khan controlling Herat, Abdul Rashid Dostum once again ensconced in Mazar-i-Sharif, and the very real possibility of conflict between Hazara and Tajik militiamen in Kabul, the recent history of Afghanistan is — almost–on replay.

Only a satisfactory solution to the question of Pashtun leadership is likely to avert such a disaster — and that will mean finding a solution acceptable, first of all, to the Pashtun people themselves.

(Source: The Asian Wall Street Journal)

Several Volumes of stories about Nasruddin (also called Nasiruddin) have been published in England. His stories have been published in Urdu and Pashto languages too; they are often repeated by the people. The stories of Nasruddin are popular because they deal with experiences of day-to-day life. He had been a tailor, a merchant, a doctor, a judge or a farmer, and he had traveled widely. Some of his stories, while narrating a funny situation describe a fact and serve as an advice for people.

Biography

Siddiq Barmak was born in Panjshir, Afghanistan, on September 7, 1962. He got his M.A degree in cinema direction from the Moscow film institut (VGIK) in the year 1987.

He has written a few screenplays and has made a few short films and also his first feature film “Osama” in Afghanistan. He was the manager of the Afghan Film governmental organization from 1992 to 1996 and after the establishment of the new government he was once again chosen to manage the Afghan film organization. All his works were banned during the time of the Taliban.

Short films:

The Wall (1983), Circle (1984), Stranger (1986), Documentary, The disaster of withering (1988), Osma (2003) Farsi

Osama, Synopsis

A 12 year old girl, her mother and a boy (spandi) have survived the repressed demonstrations launched by Afghan women at the beginning of Taliban regime. The girl and her mother work in a hospital and soon become aware that the Taliban have dismissed all the people working there and have closed its gate.

The Taliban make sure that no women can get out of their houses without a legal companion (without any member of their family). If they do so they will be punished. To support the family, the girl’s mother, who has lost her job, decides together with the girl’s Grandmother to change the appearance of the girl in order to look like a boy. This decision terrifies the girl. She is afraid of what will happen if the Taliban finds out that she is a girl. To get a job, the mother and the girl go to the milkman who was an old friend of the girl’s slain father.

The next adventures begin from here….

The religious police of the Taliban force the people to go to masque for noon prayer. The girl who is still not familiar with these regulations makes mistakes during prayer session, which then causes a Taliban to become suspicious. On the next day all boys including the girl (looking like boy) are taken to the religious school called Madrassa, which is also the center for military training by the Taliban. After some adventures the Taliban discovers the real face of the girl. The girl is put in jail. The Taliban’s judicial court, which advocates stoning and execution, force the girl to marry an old Mullah. After they are married the girl discovers that she is the Mullah’s fourth wife…

Title: Osama
Directing, Editing, Script: Siddiq Barmak
Assistant Directors: Kaveh moeinfar, Homayon paeiz, Mirvais Rekab, Razi mohebi Cinematographer: Ebrahim Ghafuri
Assistant cinematographer: Reza Sheakhi, Mehdi Amiri
Still: Vahid Ramagh
Soundmen: Behrouz Shahamat, Farokh fadai,
Sound & mix: Mastaneh Mohajer, Hussein Mahdavi
Set Designer: Akbar Meshkini
Assistant Editing: Mastaneh Mohajer
Executive manager: Siamak Alagheh band, Abubakr Atef
Script girl : Agheleh Rezaei
Music: Mohammad Reza Darwishi
Laboratory: Studio Filmsaz
Casts: Marina Golbahari, Khwaja Nader, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar, Hamida Refah, Gol Rahman Ghorbandi
Producer: Barmak Film with cooperates with NHK (Japan) and leBrcoquy Fraser(Ireland).

Festivals:

The first is screening at Directors’ Fortnight section of Cannes
Film Festival, France 2003.

Barmak an interview on Osama, Cannes 2003

Question: Can you talk to me about Osama, about this project, about your desire of film maker?

SB: Osama is a bitter and tragic story of our life. The worst time which nobody had his/her own way to get decision. Osama is the story about identity of those who had lost their identity under Osama’s name. Osama is the story about scare, where people are afraid of even the sounds of the shadows. Osama is the story about the permanent and endless story of women in prison. Osama is the story about a little girl and all the injustice and religious nonsense that is being carried on her shoulder. It was one of my dreams to become a film projectionist. It was my dream to find something in this dark place where there is just one line of light towards the big white screen and now I believe that this line of light can be moved towards peoples minds and make them bright, especially in our country.

Question: How did you get the idea? By your work as documentarist?

SB: When I was in Pakistan, I was looking to make a short fiction film. I was trying to find some special subjects and characters in many different Afghan organizations such as the handicapped, street children and Afghan newspapers in Peshawar. Accidentally I read a letter from an old senior Afghan teacher that told a story about a little girl who had a burning desire to attend school during the Taliban regime, while it was forbidden for girls. So she changes her appearance to look like a boy by cutting her hair and wearing the boy’s outfits. Of course, it was the story that shocked my friends and me.

Question: You were living in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s administration?

SB: When the Taliban took control of the Kabul city, after two weeks I was obliged to escape from Kabul to Pakistan first, but very soon I left Peshawar to the north of Afghanistan. I have tried to make fiction or documentary film there, but all my dreams didn’t came true due to worst conditions of my life as bitter lives of my people in war! After two and a half years once again unwillingly I migrated to Pakistan.

Question: How are you working? Do you have a special method?

SB: No doubt at first when I want to make something I always try to collect as much information as possible, especially the real experience I had in the and also people’s memory and their experiences. Regarding selecting of actors, the first two short fiction films that I made, was with non professional actors and actresses and especially children. To get them play in that way, I used many different styles and methods.

Question: What is your universe? Do you have big influences? Do you have some masters in cinema?

SB: My world is a poem about love which finds itself among the wars, smoke and dust. I love the poetry style of movie. In this case I can say the Andre Tarkovski, Sergei Parajanov,Angelo Polos Gorgain film style like Thingis Abuladza and Otar Eisilyani? of course very near to our language, Iranian film makers such as the great Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abbas Keya Rustami.These masters have had a big influence on my way of filmmaking.

Question: How long was the shooting of Osama? Where and when did you shoot exactly? During or after the Taliban’s?

SB: More than one year was spent on the scenario. The project started from June 2002 and was completed in March 2003 in Kabul, a suburb of Kabul city after collapse of Taliban regime.

Question: You shoot with digital camera?

SB: No. It was shot by Arriflex 35 mm. B.L 4 cameras.

Question: How do you find your actors?

SB: Generally we decided to select nonprofessional actors and actresses. To find and select the main character we went to look for it in many different sections such as schools, orphanages, street children centers and refugees camps. We selected the majority of our actors and actresses from refugees camps but we found the main character (Marina) on the street.

Question: Big difficulties during shooting? And for editing?

SB: The major problem we had was finding the female actors. This is very understandable in the current situation. The other problem we had was unpredictable cold weather, especially for the first scene, sprinkling of water by machine on the women. We were not faced with any particular problem during editing because we were well prepared for the making of this film.

Question: In France we think authors and director must have real and complete control of their films. What are you thinking about this?

SB: To make a film of course every one can share their advices but one person should be the final decision maker.

Question: What is the cost of your movie? Low budget? Difficult to get the money? Difficult to produce? You made coproduction with Ireland and NHK? How was it possible?

SB: In Afghanistan it is one of the highest budget film productions. The economic situation of Afghanistan is not suitable for such a high budget production. In this regard I am really thankful of Makhmalbaf Film House that assisted us at early stages. No doubt that the synopsis of this film attracted the attention of NHK and our Irelands friends. Of course they found the theme and subject of the film very interesting.

Question: And now what is the future of Afghan cinema? You can take a big place for this & which money? Which help? Are you optimist?

SB: We have lots of things to say to our people and the world and we have a lot of talented filmmakers in our country. For this we have strong cultural bases and literature resources. To realize these dreams we need International assistance and we can now see these first steps being taken towards developing Afghan cinema. I am a big optimist about future of Afghan Cinema.

Question: What are you waiting about the selection of your film by Director’s fortnight?

SB: My expectation is and I hope our nations pain, sorrows and suffering shock the audience and change their mines and point of view about the future of the human being.

Question: Are you going to come to Cannes?

SB: Yes, of course, I want to be the messenger of aspiration and desire of Afghan Film makers in Cannes.

Six people have also been arrested for trafficking the Afghans, who were detained from Mehriz, a border city in Iran’s Yazd province, provincial authorities said.

The officials also seized four vehicles used to transport the Afghans to Iran, a major transit point for human smuggling from Afghanistan to Europe.

According to officials, the traffickers pick poor Afghans on the pretext of better jobs and livelihood, and smuggle them to European countries through Iran.

Earlier this month, about 50 people were found dead inside a container near Quetta, the capital city of Pakistan’s Balochistan province. These people were reportedly being transported from Afghanistan to Iran via Pakistan.

With the standard of living deteriorating in Afghanistan, which is plagued by growing insurgency, people in the war-torn country are trying to flee to other countries in search of a better living.

But, most of them fall prey in the hands of human traffickers who smuggle the poor Afghans to European countries for purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.

Source