Rhetoric of resistance in the Taliban's rebel ballads
By: Michael Semple
Contributors: Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Series: Carr Working Papers Series; Carr Working Papers Series
Publisher: Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Cambridge, Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 30
Subjects: Music; Popular culture; Hindustani Songs; Hindustani music; Taliban
Description: "The paper analyses how resistance and those engaged in it are represented in a collection of recently composed ballads supportive of the Afghan Taliban’s struggle. It considers these ballads as a form of popular culture rather than simply propaganda. It concludes that the balladeers construct for the resistance a composite identity drawing both from Pashtun and Islamic cultural references. The Pashtun element of the identity which they construct includes but goes beyond the Pashtunwali honor code and invokes attachment to the land and pastoral images, some of which have long featured in Pashto literature. The balladeers also draw upon images of the Pashtun warrior which have been constructed since Victorian times and the early inter-action between Afghans and Europeans. This representation suggests that resistance draws on multiple cultural resources, with Islam as only one of its sources of inspiration."--publ. note
Notes: "March 2011"

Includes bibliographical references.

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