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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows conflict between Niaz, an 11-year old Pashtun boy, and his father, who has strict moral and religious views. The opening scene shows Niaz drawn to a youth playing a traditional Afghan stringed instrument called a rababah. The scene cuts to Niaz’s uncle trying unsuccessfully to persuade Niaz’s father to send Niaz to school, as had been the dying wish of the boy’s mother. Niaz is then admonished by his father for possessing a music cassette. His father believes that Islam forbids music, and he advises Niaz to play with his Kalashnikov.

Educational value points

• Niaz (Niaz Khan Shinwari) is shown in the clip to be fascinated by the music of the rababah, a traditional Afghan stringed instrument. In refusing to allow his son to listen to music, Niaz’s father abides by the teachings of those Muslim scholars who interpret the Koran as forbidding music because it distracts people from devotion to God. Many Muslims allow music in the form of Nasheeds, moral religious songs sung without any musical instruments (except, in some cases, percussion instruments).

• Many Pashtun men hold patriarchal views about family and insist that these conservative Islamic beliefs are followed in the home. Niaz’s father (Sher Alam Miskeen Ustad) opposes his son having an education, believing he must continue the gun-making work of his forefathers. He is also suspicious of the influence that education may have on his son as it is a pathway for young Pashtuns to seek alternative lifestyles away from their families.

• The Pashtun consist of about 60 major tribal groups and over 400 subclans who abide by a strict code of conduct known as Pashtunwali (the way of the Pashtun) and live around south-eastern Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan. Learning to fight is a matter of honour and a form of self-protection, and the Pashtun have a significant role as fiercely independent warriors. However, Pashtunwali also includes maxims on compassion, forgiveness, hospitality and offering asylum to all guests.

• Living conditions for the Pashtun are generally harsh as they are locked into a cycle affected by successive wars, geographical isolation and tribal hostilities. Data from UNESCO shows extremely low education and literacy rates. Boys are trained to exhibit 'manliness’ and often denied even basic education. Many Pashtun, girls and women especially, have been forbidden access to the skills, knowledge and technology needed to construct a more modern Afghanistan.

• Niaz’s father was a member of the Mujahadeen, the Pashtun soldiers who fought a successful ten-year guerrilla war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from 1979. This was followed by ongoing civil war resulting in a US-led military presence aiming to defeat the Taliban. Against this setting Niaz’s family can continue to make and sell Kalashnikovs, a robust gun designed in the USSR in 1947 and still used by the Pashtun to resolve tribal issues.

• Music is central to the traditional Pashtun way of life and brings relief to harsh lives; however, Niaz’s love of music conflicts with his father’s conservative Islamic views. The enjoyment of traditional music is one form of entertainment readily available to Afghans in an environment where access to Western music, television and computers is limited for religious and economic reasons.