Pashtuns Quotes

• My father always says that heroism is in the Pashtun DNA.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Father, Dna, Heroism

  "Malala: remember the young girl behind the public persona" by Catherine Bennett, www.theguardian.com. October 13, 2013.

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• I am involved in the land of a leonine and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a well of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander.

  Alexander the Great

  Son, Land, Feet

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• The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian Every large house is a real feudal fortress....Eve ry family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud....Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid.

  Winston Churchill

  Real, War, Men

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• The Pashtuns in particular are kind of trapped. They've never accepted the Durand Line nor has any Afghan government historically accepted it.

  Noam Chomsky

  Government, Lines, Kind

  Source: www.dawn.com

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• OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

  Rudyard Kipling

  Strong, Men, Sky

  "The Ballad of East and West" st. 1 (1892)

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• Pakistan is a peace loving, democratic country. Pashtuns want education for their daughters and sons. Islam is a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Daughter, Mother, Country

  "Malala Yousafzai: 'Our books and our pens are the most powerful weapons'". Speech at the United Nations, www.theguardian.com. July 12, 2013.

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• Oh East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Misunderstood, East, Orientalism

  "The Ballad of East and West" st. 1 (1892)

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• We should remember that the Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Of course, many of them did support the Taliban. But you cannot equate all Pashtuns with the Taliban.

  Ahmed Rashid

  Support, Groups, Remember

  Source: progressive.org

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• It seems that the whole world is beginning to decay, and that its putrefaction has chosen to spread outward from here, from the land of the Pashtuns, where desertification proceeds at a steady, implacable crawl even in the consciences and intellects of men.

  Yasmina Khadra

  Men, Land, Decay

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• Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile. Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Boys, Chinese, Mind

  Khaled Hosseini (2004). “The Kite Runner”, p.31, Penguin

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• What everyone underestimated was the acute unpopularity of the Taliban, even in the Pashtun areas. People like myself were saying the Taliban would be driven out very swiftly from the north of Afghanistan, but given that their main support base was in the Pashtun belt, there would be greater resistance there. That didn't happen. The Taliban had become deeply unpopular and were actually discarded by the Pashtun population almost as quickly as they were in the north. I don't see the Taliban coming back in any way.

  Ahmed Rashid

  People, Support, Population

  Source: progressive.org

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• Pashtun nationalism is reasserting itself. Its political history spans several hundred years. The Pashtuns are angry at the Americans because, one, they're still being bombed, and two, they perceive that the Americans are backing the Tajik faction, which controls the army and security forces in Kabul.

  Ahmed Rashid

  Army, Years, Two

  Source: progressive.org

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• The Pashtuns feel discriminated against by the Americans because they supported the Taliban and the war is still going on in their region with continued U.S. bombing. They are also disgruntled at the overwhelming power of their ethnic rivals the Tajiks, who dominate the security forces in Kabul and control the key levers of political power. Although Karzai is a Pashtun also, many Pashtuns consider him a hostage to the Tajiks and Americans.

  Ahmed Rashid

  War, Keys, Political

  Source: progressive.org

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• In countries other than Pakistan - I won't necessarily call them 'Western' - people support me. This is because people there respect others. They don't do this because I am a Pashtun or a Punjabi, a Pakistani, or an Iranian, they do it because of one's words and character. This is why I am being respected and supported there.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Country, Character, People

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