MatthewVanitas
Member
Spent part of today hanging out with an Afghan vet. He's an ethnic Tajik who served as a translator with the Soviet Army in Afghanistan back in the '80s. The Tajik language is almost the same as Afghan Dari (like British vs. American English, but different alphabets), so it was common for folks out of the Tajik SSR to fill that role. He was good at his job, so was trained in Pushtun (the other Afghan language).
Here's his summary of the culture of the Pushtuns, the mountain tribes who live on the Afghan/Pakistan border area, and are the source of most historical hassles for Greek/Brit/Russian/NATO alike:
I haven't been to Afghanistan myself, so count vouch for veracity, but that's one man's opinion.
Here's his summary of the culture of the Pushtuns, the mountain tribes who live on the Afghan/Pakistan border area, and are the source of most historical hassles for Greek/Brit/Russian/NATO alike:
The Pashtu is always armed, it's simply fundamental. If he's poor, he has a "bur", which is what they call the English three-hundred-and-three rifle. If he has some money he has a Kalashnikov. If he's rich he has an M-16, or an AKSU, or maybe a grenade launcher. He takes it everywhere with him, out on the streets of the city even.
He wears a webbing across his chest with magazines in it, maybe some grenades on the sides. Russians called it a "bra", but the Pushtu all wear it. They decorate them with flowers, or bits of mirror, or anything that looks good. They also carve the buttstocks of their rifles, put designs or flowers on them. He straps on all his war gear... and then he goes to the market to buy potatoes.
They also dye the fronts of their hands red with hennah, like women do. Also they darken around their eyes with a powder ground from stone, like women. They carry a special decorated box of chewing-tobacco with them, and chew that all the time. In the lid of the box is a mirror, so you'll see them squatting down by the roadside with their rifle, looking at themselves in the mirror and preening. It's like they have aspects of both man and women.
They're vicious though, and talk about nothing but fighting. On the street, or at home with their families, they just talk about fighting. "You should have see the battle over at such-and-such ten years ago! It was amazing!" "You call that a battle? That was nothing, you should have been in Mazzar-el-Sharif last year, that was a fight!"
When they fight, if the other side kills one of theirs, they absolutely must kill one of the other side in revenge. It's blood for blood, and they will not rest until they're avenged.
That's Pashtu culture.
I haven't been to Afghanistan myself, so count vouch for veracity, but that's one man's opinion.
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