Centlivres-Demont - Afghanistan: identity, society and politics since 1980

Micheline Centlivres-Demont is an anthropologist and specialist on Afghanistan. She has been the editor of Afghanistan Info, an analytical periodical, since 1980. She is the author of Popular Art in Afghanistan: Paintings on Trucks, Mosques and Tea-Houses, and the co-author with Pierre Centlivres of Portraits dAfghanistan, Revoir Kaboul and Afghanistan on the Threshold of the 21st Century.

This is a fine and all-too-timely collection of expert witnesses to the fate of Afghanistan, covering topics from statecraft, gender and ethnicity through agriculture and music. Centlivres-Demont has fifty years of Afghan experience and a keen eye for the accuracy and insider knowledge of the contributors.

Mark Slobin, Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, Wesleyan University

A unique and immensely valuable perspective on the tragic recent history of Afghanistan []. There is nothing like this book. Start here if you wish to cut through the political spin, and let this excellent volume lead you to the Afghanistan Info archive and its unparalleled coverage of the people and country. I.B.Tauris is to be congratulated. This book is important.

Nancy Lindisfarne, Anthropologist and Afghan Scholar, School of Oriental and African Studies, London

This set of articles on Afghan events as they happened over the past three decades is a unique contribution to the field. That they well deserve publication in a collected volume is evidence of both their quality and unmatched perceptiveness.

Thomas Barfield, Professor of Anthropology, Boston University

This book offers to all specialists and aficionados of Afghanistan a unique insight into the various phases of the Afghan crisis from 1980 to the present. The multiple dimensions of this protracted conflict are described and analyzed by experts and witnesses from a great variety of perspectives. The book is in many respects a tribute to the resilience of the Afghan people; it reflects the unfailing commitment of Micheline Centlivres-Demont, its editor, to keep for almost four decades the situation of the country [and] the plight of its people on the radar screen of governments, civil society organizations and the media.

Jacques Forster, Professor Emeritus at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

First published in 2015 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

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Copyright Editorial Selection and Preface 2015 Micheline Centlivres-Demont

Copyright Introduction 2015 Olivier Roy

Copyright Individual Chapters 2015 Khadija Abbasi, Ludwig Adamec, Hamida Aman, G. Whitney Azoy, John Baily, Ingeborg Baldauf, Rolf Bindemann, Kaja Borchgrevink, Pierre Centlivres, Micheline Centlivres-Demont, Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, Antonio Donini, Rmy Dor, Gilles Dorronsoro, Bernard Dupaigne, Nancy Hatch Dupree, Gilbert tienne, Abdul Ghafur Rawan Farhadi, Raphy Favre, Michel Foucher, Edward Girardet, Antonio Giustozzi, Bernt Glatzer, Jonathan Goodhand, Frdric Grare, Erwin Grtzbach, Kristian Berg Harpviken, Selig S. Harrison, Arnold Hottinger, Mushahid Hussain, Jolyon Leslie, Chantal Lobato, Citha D. Maass, William Maley, Peter Marsden, Alessandro Monsutti, Asta Olesen, Christophe de Ponfilly, Jean-Jos Puig, Ahmed Rashid, Sayyid Qasim Reshtya, Olivier Roy, Barnett R. Rubin, Conrad Schetter, M. Nazif Shahrani, J.P. Singh Uberoi, Jean-Christophe Victor, Aziz Zekrya

The right of Micheline Centlivres-Demont to be identified as the editor of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Translation of articles originally in French and German by Patrick Camiller.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Modern Middle East Studies: 165

ISBN: 978 1 78453 081 5

eISBN: 978 0 85773 581 2

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

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CONTENTS

Micheline Centlivres-Demont

Olivier Roy

Micheline Centlivres-Demont

Aziz Zekrya

Michel Foucher

Jean-Christophe Victor

Erwin Grtzbach

Chantal Lobato

Rmy Dor

Olivier Roy

Olivier Roy

Pierre Centlivres and Micheline Centlivres-Demont

Mushahid Hussain

Selig S. Harrison

Rolf Bindemann

Pierre Centlivres

Jean-Jos Puig

Mushahid Hussain

Arnold Hottinger

William Maley

William Maley

Nancy Hatch Dupree

Bernard Dupaigne

Asta Olesen

Frdric Grare

Barnett R. Rubin

Rolf Bindemann

Sayyid Qasim Reshtya

Olivier Roy

William Maley

Nancy Hatch Dupree

Ludwig Adamec

Barnett R. Rubin

Citha D. Maass

Gilles Dorronsoro

Peter Marsden

John Baily

Ahmed Rashid

Pierre Centlivres

Olivier Roy

Antonio Giustozzi

Christophe de Ponfilly

William Maley

Gilbert tienne

Alessandro Monsutti

Raphy Favre

Ahmed Rashid

Micheline Centlivres-Demont

Antonio Donini

Conrad Schetter

J.P.Singh Uberoi

William Maley

Ingeborg Baldauf

Bernt Glatzer

Hamida Aman

G. Whitney Azoy

Antonio Giustozzi

William Maley

Antonio Giustozzi

Gilles Dorronsoro

Jonathan Goodhand

Antonio Giustozzi

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy

M. Nazif Shahrani

Kristian Berg Harpviken and Kaja Borchgrevink

Jolyon Leslie

Abdul Ghafur Rawan Farhadi

Antonio Giustozzi

Nancy Hatch Dupree

Peter Marsden

Alessandro Monsutti

William Maley

Gilles Dorronsoro

Khadija Abbasi

William Maley

Edward Girardet

PREFACE

Afghanistan has been a target in the cross hairs of Western media since the late 1970s. Up to that time, only political scientists took any notice of the political rivalries between the two opposing blocs in this oh-so-peaceful country. But the coup dtat of 1978 and the ensuing Soviet intervention of December 1979 plunged the country into the ongoing drama of the Cold War. The USSR, it seemed, had taken a giant step on its path towards the warm seas.

Across the country, revolts broke out against the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, and refugees by the thousand, and soon by the hundreds of thousands, sought refuge in Pakistan and Iran. NGOs on site alerted world opinion to the difficult conditions in which refugees found themselves and to the repressions and atrocities taking place inside Afghanistan. Support groups welled up all over the West, provoked by humanitarian conscience and, perhaps, by anti-Soviet sentiments. In Switzerland a Committee for the Support of the Afghan People was created, its objective being to increase awareness of the Afghan situation among politicians and the media. Its press organ,