E/CN.4/1503
Annex II page 3
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The failure of several governments under the monarchy and the increasing polarization of forces in the 1970s should be seen against the dichotomy in Afghanistan over respect for authority. For centuries throughout all the events which have marked the country's history the traditional ethnic and religious leaders have exercised practically absolute authority over the population, based on wholesale observance of strict tribal codes and on intense devotion to, and complete respect for, Islam and its socio-cultural traditions.
7.
The Afghans' strong respect for authority began with the family unit, in which the senior male could expect obedience from all those under his responsibility. Society had a strong tradition of government by council, or "jirgah". Everything relating to the group, particularly a conflict of interests, was settled in the jirgah where all senior males were able to speak their minds freely. A decision was taken on the basis of a show of hands, and was then binding. Respect for the jirgah was deeply ingrained in all Afghans, and it thus acted as
as a mechanism for social and political control the only insti- tutionalized device which resolved conflicts involving the
group.
8.
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Religious leaders or mullahs represented the moral, spiritual, political, social and ethical values derived from Islamic principles on which society was largely based. Their vigilance saw to it that only those reforms which the central government could justify in Islamic terms were likely to be accepted.
9. Time-honoured social and tribal codes complemented those derived from the Koran to govern the lives of the people. The price of disobeying them was expulsion from the group. The highly structured codes, resistant to change, were to be safeguarded with absolute loyalty and honour. Honour was the keystone of Pushtoonwali, the age-old code of the Pushtoon tribes which delineated the proper
proper actions in both moral and criminal matters. Those who did not obey the code were punished swiftly and harshly by the rest of the tribe. So strict was the concept of honour that blood revenge was mandatory, no matter
no matter how long it might take to accomplish it. A great deal of feuding among tribes resulted.
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