Ali Gohar
Towards ending cycles of violence and killing in the Pukhtoons tribal community
Gayathri Fernando

“Pukhtoon with love will accompany you to the hell but with force not even to the heaven”.
Badshah Khan Through the lifework of ‘Ali Gohar’, we include the commitment to end what is known as ‘honour killing’ and ‘revenge killing’ in a part of the Islamic world guided by ancient tribal culture and tradition. This gives us a chance to reveal through Ali’s words, the community work and above all the conviction of the people in this community that violence is not the way, and how the Islamic faith is a peaceful one and cannot be interpreted to sanction killing for any reason, whatsoever. This may be a reiteration of how peaceful the great faith of Islam is, yet, in the present time when an extreme form of militant Islam adopted by terrorists is the focus of global media, it is of value to be able to present the work of people in Islamic nations who are tackling issues of violence connected to tribal custom and tradition from the inside. Humanity is one. Indivisible. As long as we do not convince ourselves that certain ethnic or faith-based groups lack this humanity, there is still hope for greater understanding and compassion between the rich and diverse communities of the world. IntroductionDeep rooted tribal notions of honour, shame and community responsibility are bound up in the taking of life termed murder by many world communities, yet sanctioned by certain tribal custom and notion as ‘honour killings’ and ‘revenge killings.’ While penalisation of the offence is a major advancement to halt this cycle of violence, to transform the mindset of the community and the individual is more complex and a long term undertaking. Together in the campaign to end honour killing and revenge killing are both international organisations and members of the local community.  Through the many Discussions on email and telephone with one such inspiring individual, Ali Gohar, we are able to include one of the most controversial communities where tribal tradition and violence are entwined: The Pukhtoon tribes along the Pak-Afghan border. Since the post 9/11 USA-led war on terrorism pointed its finger at Osama Bin Laden and declared war on Afghanistan, the Pukhtoon community became infamous for the inclusion of the Taliban tribe. Belying state demarcation, the Pukhtoon community straddles the Pak-Afghan border, including people of Pakistani nationality who speak Pustho, such as Ali Gohar. All at once, there was international focus on the Pukhtoons and there are publications that document their way of life and their deep rooted tribal notions of community, shame, honour, leadership, etc. The Pukhtoon tribal notions became an international emblem for the ways of a people perceived by many modern nations as antiquated and a threat to the human right or fundamental freedom of the individual and the vesting of authority in state institutions. Yet, from this historically violent community comes a nonviolent leader, Abdul Gaffer Khan also known as Bacha or Badshah Khan or the Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, included in Part I of this book. In his footsteps, from within this community are individuals such as Ali Gohar who represent the element of humanity in all communities that work towards a nonviolent future. The InterviewIn this interview with Ali, we touch on the Pukhtoon notions related to violence and forgiveness, the incentive for co-operation between international NGOs and the tribal leadership and the inspiration of Abdul Gaffer Khan. We highlight the humanity and commitment to nonviolence of people like Ali who are in the unique position in these communities to have studied peace building and nonviolence in a western context and yet are able to address the sensitive issues of tribal custom-sanctioned violence from the inside as an insider.  He stands for an important insider element in the international campaigns in peace and nonviolence as he knows the way to the hearts and minds of the community and may be relied upon to work in awareness and sensitivity among his people. Ali lives in Peshawar, just a few miles from the Pak-Afghan border and speaks Pustho as his mother tongue. Throughout his life, Ali has been personally touched by feudal violence in his family and faced with such killing which is termed honour killing and revenge killing. ‘I was born into enmity’ says Ali, ‘…and I have lived with enmity. My maternal grandfather was killed by a rival family and my uncles thirsted for revenge. Even whether or not people accept Gaffer Khan depended on whether they were for or against avenging killings in their own family. Khan was rejected by my maternal grandfather’s people. I grew up in an atmosphere of bitterness and revenge– two of my uncles killed others of the rival family by way of avengement. As for me, I was brought up close to my paternal grandfather and though at the beginning I did not like Gaffer Khan just because my paternal family did not like him, my maternal grandfather used to read from Khan, and later, I too read the wonderful truths of nonviolence and the immense power of the nonviolent vision and will of a man who started the journey by working in his own community. However, it was not until Ali went over to the USA and left his country and traditions that he began to appreciate and read about Khan. Q: Ali, why was this? How did moving out of your community physically help to bring Gaffer Khan’s teachings alive? A: There is a pustho proverb “Da Khawr Mullah Pa bang soak Kalama na wayee” on poor Mullah (when there is a preset religious call to prayer, no one starts praying) while another proverb is that “you understand the sweet taste when eat chilli things” and that we tend to appraise some one after his death. That was my story.Soon after I arrived at the Eastern Mennonite University, 9/11 took place. The Taliban and Pukhtoons were on TV everywhere. People were asking “who are Taliban who are Pukhtoons, why are they so stuck in their religious belief and practice, etc.” When I attended the first class of ‘violence –non violence’ the professors were mostly talking about Martin Luther King and Gandhian non-violent philosophy. I listened to them for some time. Then in one class I asked Lisa Sharch (professor) do you know a person named Ghaffar Khan who organized a hundred-thousand strong non-violent army among the most violent tribe of Pukhtoons (while Taliban were also Pukhtoon).She replied I heard about Bacha Khan but nothing is available on him in writing. Now, a friend of mine who was Fulbright Professor Mr. Bob Lawrence at Peshawar University was very interested in the Pukhtoon culture and collected many books on Pukhtoons. He was residing in the State of Oregon. I rang him on the same day to send me the book written under the title ‘the man to match his mountains, Badshah Khan the non violent solider of Islam’. I got it on the very next day and went straight with it to Lisa. Lisa studied it and came with a new chapter of non-violent Pukhtoon work the very next day. And thus, the exploration for the work of Bacha Khan started at EMU. The book was shared with almost all universities in the world working for peace. I was invited to different classes within the EMU and outside, to share the practical knowledge of Bacha Khan’s non-violent army.My thirst for learning more about Bacha Khan’s work increased when I joined the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Chicago for my practicum. They were aware of Bacha Khan’s work and were interested to hear more from me. And still the journey continues…Q: What was the personal change that came over you? A: Personal change was not only due to the Bacha Khan philosophy, but also reading the holy prophet thirteen years Mecca life, and being in EMU I saw the Mennonite struggle for peace and each individual personal effort towards peace. Away from the conflict, reflecting in the peace atmosphere, I started questioning myself what I can do to bring peace to my areas and how I can change myself to present a role model like Bacha Khan for others in my community to follow. In Pakistan, violence against women has increased at all levels of society and is growing rapidly in forms of verbal, physical, mental, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse.  At the same time, the extreme form of violence against women known as ‘Honour’ killing, discounts a woman’s life and her ability to make her own decisions. The Oxfam Great Britain Country Programme through their ‘We Can End ‘Honour’ Killing Campaign’ states that ‘Honour’ killings are possible because these inhumane acts are not condemned by society and the law does not punish perpetrators. As long as society continues to condone ‘honour’ killing and maintains a climate of impunity for perpetrators, they say, women across Pakistan will continue to live in fear for their lives. Ali worked in his community together with Oxfam to end honour killings. He is himself, Pukhtoon, and can contribute a lot to his own people as he has both the acceptance and credibility of his own clan and tribe. This is very important in dealing with violence that is rooted in a longstanding tradition and culture. Q: Ali, tell us about honour, shame and revenge in the Pukhtoon community. How does this threaten nonviolent coexistence within your community?A: Honour and shame are an integral part of the Pukhtoons as they live in a community strongly linked through clan, sub-clan, tribe and sub-tribes. Each one is the custodian of personal and family tribe honour. Dishonouring one means dishonouring the whole tribe. An act of shame on the part of one will be considered an act of shame for the community of the same tribe. Honour is again divided in to Gharat and Azat. If a father, brother or relative is killed and the others cannot take revenge that is called Gharat. If, while a woman is walking with you and someone teases her or a guest is treated badly by some one in your Hujra (community centre), the person or community has taken your Azat. Such notions of honour lead to violence among individuals while other members of the clan and tribe take stand, and the circle of violence will accelerate till elders intervene with an initiative of peace building. Regarding killing there are peaceful overtures that are possible, while in the case of women who were kidnapped, raped, went on her own will for love mirage then there is no way for compensation or peace building. One can easily imagine how honour is close to a single Pukhtoon.Claiming descent from the missing tribe of Moses, the Pukhtoons as children study in three different institutions mosque, school and hujra, the third being the community centre for each clan owned by the whole community where they learn all ethics and traditions of Azizwali (Pukhtoons code of life). Understanding the community culture and tradition is quintessential in order to change traditional attitudes to violence.  For instance, Jirga is described not as a governing, legislating or judicial body but as a set of processes directed at building communications between parties and people. More specifically, Jirga usually refers to the elders’ council of each of the clans that make up the tribes that make up the Pukhtoons who live across the international border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jirga literally meaning is an elder assembly to resolve an issue on consensus. The result may be positive or negative. Jar means to speak openly, ga, a place for that.  Working for peace and nonviolence, a mix of both local and international institutions (not necessarily separate as sometimes local orgs have blueprints and experts from other countries and contexts) face challenges of being perceived and indeed realising that they are ‘outsiders’ to the community. However in the common objective of tackling deep rooted violence in such communities together, it is vital that the international orgs and their conceptualisations can appreciate and understand the local cultural traditions, customs and genre even when these include violence. It is essential that the local leadership however different from the state model the western societies rely on be respected and involved for it is they who represent what is different and diverse about this community. Problems and cultural clashes take place when modern western institutions and international NGOs relate to state institutions rather than to traditional forms of leadership and social practices and yet try to work to tackle communal violence acting from within the community. Q: How difficult is it to discuss honour killing and revenge killing as a crime within your community?A: Honour killing is a traditional issue; no one wants to listen to any thing said against the culture or in an attempt to bring about change to traditions. In the community or Jirga meeting some time I got response from the grey beard participants that Pukhtoons with out honour is zero. Shame and honour are interlinked. In Islam there are four witnesses for shame or blaming some one. While for murder only two are sufficient. Again if one did not present four and produced less the judge can punish him/her with eighty lashes and banned him/her for rest of his life to be witness. Any intervener needs a deep knowledge of culture, traditions, and religion to take start from killing. But killing is also honour if it is carried out in revenge traditionally speaking. A slow and steady start with religious injunction can lead to discussion at a certain stage about honour and honour killing (the slogan of honour killing can be changed with, killing far honour, or there is no honour in killing). Islamic teaching is very much in favour of the campaign but people almost follow the tradition and not Islam. I work hard to bring the nonviolence concept in by mentioning different examples from the same community and linking it to religion. My own family experience of enmity also helps me and I share the suffering of surviving near and dears of victims of such violence. My articles in the newspapers on social issues, TV plays, and published books attract a wider audience on more issues than the issue of violence alone. Recently I started with Pakistan Television corporation thirteen episode Pustho programme under the title ,da pa sa,(how its happened).it is based on the daily reported cases in the print media on most violent conflict in the community. When the crux of the issue is diagnoses, it is almost very petty thing or issue and the people mostly abuse the perpetrator. It also change there mind to think before going to any conflict. People listen to me with pin drop silence when I link traditional and modern social work in my speech. Q: How does respect for tradition and communication with traditional leadership improve with your involvement in campaigns such as Oxfam’s, Ali?A: There are four indigenous institutions on gross roots level in our community. Religious elite, Jirga, Elected representative, and Community based NGO’s. Jirga is one of the indigenous institutions for peacebuilding and conflict transformation for thousands of years, whereas Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs are the recent initiative for advocacy, awareness. There is a big gap between the two as the modern rights and needs-based organization evaluate and explain the Jirga as traditional one, lack of women participation, uneducated, traditionalist even inhuman, while the traditional leadership still enjoy every sort of community support, decision making power and influence all within their reach. They in turn consider NGOs and CBOs as foreign agents, working for foreign agendas with their money. My first endeavour was to narrow down the communication gap between the two. The result is very encouraging: starting from criticising and creating problems for each other, now the decision-makers and implementers sit with the human rights activists and go jointly to the community for advocacy, awareness and to bring about behavioural change.Q: What does the campaign against honour killings seek to achieve? A: The Oxfam vision is to change the behaviour of people at the grass root level. The work is mostly done through the establishment of district alliances where all civil society members including the most powerful traditional leadership took joint action by any event suitable according to the community needs. Another important aspect of the campaign is to identify the grassroots level ‘change makers’, those who save the lives of individual and groups and present them as a role model to the community.The shame circle is difficult to break yet we try to do many things with people who have experienced honour killings in the family. I draw on Khan’s words to make an impact – use politics and you will have them all at loggerheads, but Khan is above all this pettiness. At least now, the authorities are going to code the offence of honour killing as ‘murder.’ It is difficult to expect the police to tackle it in this light. Q: How do you think the understanding of Jirga and other local social practices influence the campaign’s success in Pakistan?
           
A: An important aspect of Pukhtoon code of life is called nanawatai (sanctuary) when elders of a community for any wrong doing visit the victim house to beg apology. In this way people forgive (one can expect) even murder. In the Pukhtoon community the concept of ego, shame, what others will think or say, is very important. Also remember another difference is that the word ‘sorry’ does not exist in the Pustho dictionary. When some one accepts responsibility for the wrongdoing, then he is exempted from any punishment that exists in the world.Grey-bearded people are not only respected due to their wisdom, knowledge, and practice of pukhtoonwali but they also considered as the guest of GOD as they try for reconciliation between two individuals or groups to reap the benefit after death. That is their motive of visiting the conflicting parties. They throw their turbans at the feet of the other elder and beg forgiveness, or bow at the feet, slaughter a sheep at the hujra entrance, these are the symbols for asking for complete forgiveness and when one can do that, the other responds positively. Sometimes a single individual on his own seeks Nanawatai in the home of the victim or his people after committing a crime goes to the enemy home with his own weapon and hands over his weapon to take the revenge. In such cases mostly the enemy is given one hundred per cent forgiveness as the single individual accepted his wrongdoing and asked for forgiveness. The wronged member of the community takes it again as an honour and grants him forgiveness. Nanawatai is one of the best examples of Pukhtoon code of life.While in campaigning and working for behavioural change you will try to wait for the specific occasion to arise within the community. Many things happened automatically due to our awareness and to utilize that is the technique positively needs special community technique.Q: How would you convince a Pukhtoon clan or tribe that revenge killing is not a good thing? A: This can firstly be done through religious teaching, as in Islam you have the right to take the revenge but from those only who did wrong to you, while in our community even the grandson whose father was not even born at that time is usually killed in the name of revenge. But GOD also conveys in the holy Koran that if you forgive someone, then your reward is with GOD. An alternative of Khunbaha (blood money) also is provided for in Islam, where the victim family is compensated with blood money or property, or both.The second important aspect is to make people aware of their individual and other rights. People don’t know their rights, if they don’t know, then they do not respect the other’s right, and the community outside is not aware of it. Also, the individual person who did wrong should take the responsibility of wrongdoing and should not create problems for other members of his family, clan or tribe.
The tribe member should not support a person who did something wrong, though traditional speaking any one, whatever he does belongs to a family and will be supported by the family, clan or tribe members.Q: To what extent is Khan revered in his own country and what are the obstacles to drawing on Khan as a nonviolence example? A:Bacha Khan started his nonviolence work before Gandhi but when Gandhi started his nonviolent movement he joined him.  To his followers, Khan was the messenger of peace and nonviolence; that’s why he organized a hundred-thousand strong army committed to face any situation nonviolently. To his opponents however, he was a traitor; anti-Pakistani and loyal to Hindus. These were the two extremes Khan faced during his life. That’s why he not only spent 15 years before Pakistan’s Independence in prison, but also was imprisoned for the same duration even after Independence. His main opponents in the community were great landlords and religious clerks who were bribed by the British to work against Khan.Yet, his practices can be spread without his political philosophy, focusing only on his nonviolent practice as the political front is controversial. I plan to document the story of the still living servant of God. One such interview is on our web. But if some one came forward to do it that will be wonderful not only for Pakistan, but to be shared with all communities in the world. His colleagues are very old almost above 80 and dying. Q: Have you ever been threatened or persecuted for the work you do?A: Never in my life. I first identify the stakeholder, study culture, religion and traditions and then fit my plan of action and the objectives I hope to achieve within it. I also use proverbs, poems, famous stories which the people like very much and relate to. I also keep in mind the Bacha Khan quotation that is; “Pukhtoon with love will accompany you to the hell but with force not even to the heaven”. Azizwali is another important Pukhtoon unwritten code of life: attending the community funerals, praying in the same mosque, eating with them in the same bowl, and thus enjoying with them happy occasions in their own style, gives you an edge anywhere you go. Q: So many are confusing Islam with the extreme form of militant Islam adopted by certain individuals and organizations in the world to sanction acts of terrorism. Can we have a very simple instance of the nonviolent religion of Islam in your own words? A: The greeting Al Salaam Alaikum means peace be with you. It is wrong to say that our religion, Islam, begets hatred, evil or violence. Islam is against any violence or bigotry. Yet the codes of men are twisted and promote violence in contradiction to the dicta of Islam. They say in the United States of America that the Pukhtoon culture is a violent culture. Yes, it was a violent culture, but just as the Taliban is of the Pukhtoon culture, so am I. So are many of us in Peshawar. The present violence root causes are to be dig out diagnoses and treated. We are peaceful and practice nonviolence, though at times it was difficult in these conditions in which we feel violent sometimes. Q: How do you face setbacks in your life journey towards a nonviolent future for your community? What is your inspiration when you are depressed at the slow pace of success in changing mindset from violence to non-violence?A: Behaviour change is a continued process. It needs a lot of patience and is a long struggle, yet I am always optimistic and hopeful for the change. I also turn to God for spiritual support and I trust in God’s help at any moment of my struggle. I try to present myself as a role model to others. I also pray for internal change. As Mulana Rumai mentioned in his poem, translated the saying of the Holy prophet (Peace Be upon Him).
When I turn from the outer battle
I looked towards the inner battle.
We have returned from the lesser jihad
We are with the prophet in greater jihad.
Mulana Rumai * Any errors misinterpretations or confusion of meaning is sincerely regretted. This attempt by the editor to discuss unfamiliar cultural notions for the first time was not enhanced by the necessity to conduct this interview from a distance and deducing meaning from a common language, English which nevertheless holds different meaning in each community speaking in another mother tongue.

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