A New Understanding of Afghanistan

Author: Lindsey Whitton

The Taliban "may seem like a product from another century" but, like the rest of Afghanistan, the regime is really "a product of global forces," said David Edwards, professor at the Williams College Department of Anthropology during his Saturday lecture entitled "News From Afghanistan: Pictures from the Afghan Media Project." Edwards, who moved to Afghanistan after he graduating from college, interspersed his lecture on globalization in Afghanistan with both personal anecdotes that mirrored major political events and movements and images from the Afghan Media Project. The Media Project is a joint venture between Williams and the Afghan Media Resource Center (AMRC) that includes 3,000 hours of videotape, 100,000 photographic slides and negatives, 1,600 audiotapes and myriad press releases.

"Afghanistan was initially established as a buffer between the English in India and czarist Russia," Edwards noted. He explained how when Afghan King Amanullah attempted to westernize the country he was met with extreme "tribal and religious backlash in 1929," similar to the tribal and religious backlash that has been plaguing the country during the last few decades.

One of the more surprising points that Edwards presented was that in the 1970s the Islamic influence was more passive and remained in the religious and social spheres. The religion was not at all a political force until after the 1978 Marxist a coup d'etat The ensuing war soon became part of the much larger Cold War, and Islam became politicized.

Afghanistan citizens turned to their religion and martyrdom to "make sense of senseless law or redeem something that is unredeemable," Edwards explained. The United States also endorsed Pakistan, who abolished the diverse political parties in Afganistan and established seven new parties, all of which were Islamic based. The religion of Islam suddenly gained immense political sway.

Edwards was an expert on Afganistan decades before many Americans could even pronounce the name of the country. In the post- Sept. 11 world, his understanding and the Afghan Media Profect are valuable resources as many Americans attempt to understand Afghanistan's complicated history and the forces that shaped it.