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Women's Roles in the Afghanistan Jihad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Audrey C. Shalinsky
Audrey C. Shalinsky
Affiliation:
Teaches at the Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3431, Laramie, Wy. 82071, U.S.A.
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Extract

During the winter and spring of 1990 Farghanachi Uzbek refugees from Afghanistan were the subjects of my ethnographic research in Karachi, Pakistan, where they form an unregistered community. The Farghanachi frequently play cassette tapes that explain the ongoing jihad in Afghanistan through stories about the Prophet Muhammad. Women and children use the tapes to accompany conversation and to facilitate discussion of Islam and martyrdom; occasionally they cry at the stories, which remind them of their own dead kin, the extraordinary circumstances of jihad, and their transformed lives. This paper draws conclusions about the ideal roles of women in jihad from a tape recorded in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. On the tape the exemplary behavior of a mother, wife, and daughter during the famous battle of Uhud that Muhammad and his followers fought against the Meccans is recounted. The infamous Hind the liver eater—who symbolizes the brutality and violence of female vengeance—is ultimately vanquished by these good women.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , November 1993 , pp. 661 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

NOTES

Author's note: All excerpts from the tape were translated by A. Manan Kaisken, a longtime informant, and myself. The words in brackets indicate added phrases for the sake of clarity in written English or informants' comments. I am solely responsible for the interpretations offered here.

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