Culture Diversity Management مدیریت تفاوت های فرهنگی

There was a Culture Diversity Management class in Europe in which people from different countries of the world participated. The goal of this class was to promote cultural understanding among different cultures and to promote co-existence. The guest lecturer was a culture specialist from one of the European counties:

Culture Specialist: Today we are going to talk about the issues which has always been misunderstood and misinterpreted by different people of the world due to the culture diversity. I have collected some photos from the internet for you, so that you can look at it and see the differences. Let’s begin with our differences. Look at Chinese people here in this photo. They spit on the floor and they had an anti spitting campaign in their country. We European people don’t spit on the floor. Look at some Afghan women, they wear Burqa’s but our women don’t. Look at Japanese people, they bow to greet but we European shake hands. Most of other nations cannot stand in QUEUEs while waiting for the bus or while buying things in the supermarket but we Europeans do stand in queues. Look at Islamic countries. They all kill each other with the guns that we produce. Then we have to intervene to stop the fight. We take guns and go to those countries to kill the half of their people to protect the other half. The Examples are Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is all about culture and culture diversity. Let me conclude. After the world war two, when we stopped fighting with each other, we European countries are the best people in the world and all other nations out of this continent are not good. This was today’s lesson of culture diversity management. Do you have any questions? Before you ask any questions, I have to tell you that here in this class, the teachers are the king. If you go against me, or if you want to criticize me, I will ruin your lives. See you tomorrow. 

Hospitality of European Countries for Afghan Refugees

Afghan Refugee 1: Salam, how are you?

Afghan Refugee 2: I guess I am fine! Thanks and you?

Afghan Refugee 1: Fine, thanks. Why do you guess you are fine?

Afghan Refugee 2: Because European system and people thought me to think positive even if I feel strong pain. How is your family? 

Afghan Refugee 1: They are not fine. They are still in Afghanistan. They are hungry and sick because of my mistake of coming to Europe. I left them behind and thought maybe if I go to Europe, I will find a job and help my family back home and bring them here but now it is about 8 years that I am here and I can’t get a positive answer for asylum application. I am just stuck in this bureaucratic system for more than 8 years and I don’t have even a work permit. 

Afghan Refugee 2: That is difficult. I see many Afghan young refugees face the same problem. They are wasting their lives waiting for a positive decision for years. Don’t worry. Those who have received a positive decision are the same as those who did not. Look at me. I have received a positive answer for my asylum application and I am still in the same situation with you. There is no work here. I am also stuck in the same situation and problems. We are in the same boat. We are stuck in that strong language and cultural discrimination. When we Afghans go to all these European countries, the first thing we hear is “Learn Our Language and Culture” otherwise we don’t give you food to eat. It is very strange; they ask us to learn a language that most of their own citizens don’t speak in that language. They pay for my apartment rent and about a 100 Euro for my food and send me to a language school where I have to pay 24 Euro for learning their language. If I don’t go to the school, they will stop paying me which means there is no food, no home and nothing. They themselves call it as a strong “nationalism” but I will use the word “Lingualism” for this kind of language discrimination.

Afghan Refugee 1: Yes, you are right. I have been to so many different European countries. I have applied asylum in 5 biggest European countries and waited for some years for the negative reply. It is almost the same all over Europe. In every village of Europe, when you enter a community, they will start to teach you their own culture and language and don’t give you even food and water if you stop to learn their culture and language. This is totally bizarre and different than our hospitality traditions where you have to try to speak the language of the guest and try to bring the best of the food that you have for them to make the guests feel at home.  We smile at guests and we have even that proverb which says “Ba peeshaket pesht nago ki mehmaan da khana ast” which means “Don’t say even pesht (means “go away” only used for cats) to your cat when the guest is at home”. 

Who are the Taliban? طالبان کی ها هستند؟

European man: I have watched many films and many videos about Afghanistan but I don’t really know about Taliban, who are they and what do they want? What do the people of Afghanistan think about it?

Afghan refugee: Well, that is a very nice question and a very typical one. To answer that question, first I need to know how much you know about Afghanistan and its people.

European man: Well, I think Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It is an Islamic country and all of the people are Muslims.

Afghan refugee: Ok, let me tell you something different about Afghanistan. This country is a gold mine and all super powers want to have their share from that gold mine. That is the issue number one. Issue number tow is about its people. It is a multicultural country full of diversity. There are different religions in that country. Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism are the main religions in that country. There are atheists in that country. Inside the Islam in Afghanistan, there are many other sub-divisions. If I tell you easily, Islam is divided into many other small parts called “Mazhabs”. There are Sunni Muslims in Afghanistan and there are Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. Do you know how many different types of Sunni Muslims are there in Afghanistan and how many different types of Shiites?  

European man: No, I don’t know. I guess one kind of Sunni and one kind of Shiites.

Afghan refugee: No, that is a wrong guess. There different schools of thought in the world who are called Sunni. There is not one single Sunni. The most famous branches of Sunni schools of thought are called:

1. Shaafehi
2. Maliki
3. Hanbali
4. Hanafi
5. Wahabbi

Afghanistan has got many followers of the last two branches of Sunni.

There are also many types of Shiite school of thought in the world but Afghanistan has only two kinds of Shiites in it.

1. Jafari
2. Ismaeli

The main problem in Afghanistan lies in the fact that all these branches doubt in the Muslimhood of each other and they don’t recognize each other as true Muslims. Now if you want to know Taliban belongs to which branch of Islam. They belong to Wahabi and Hanafi school of thought. But most of the Afghans believe that they are not Muslims.

European man: It is so complicated.

Afghan refugee: Yes, but that is not all of it. You have to know some other issues as well to be able to understand the Taliban. Do you know what tribalism means?

European man: I guess yes but it is better that you tell me.

Afghan refugee: There are different tribes in Afghanistan. They are also called ethnic groups. There are Tajiks, Uzbaks, Turkmans, Pashtuns, Sayids, Hazaras, Qezel Baash, Bayaats …etc.

All these different ethnic groups have their own sub-divisions and they follow different branches of Islam. For example Hazaras are famous for being Shiites while there are Sunni Hazaras as well. Pashtuns are famous for being Sunni Hanafi while there are many Shiite Pashtuns in Kandahar. Religion and ethnicity are intertwined and have divided the people of Afghanistan into different categories. If you want to know the Taliban, you better find out that Taliban falls into which category of ethnic groups. They are mainly Pashtuns and they have a strong feeling to defend, force and impose Pashto Language and on the the native speakers of other languages of Afghanistan. During the Taliban regime Pashto was the only official langauge and Dari was taken out of the official langauges in that time. Every single Pashtun was a Talib in that time and when Taliban collapsed, all of them changed their clothes and became democrats with a tie. Most of them are now ministers. You better know the idea of “Pan-Pashtunism” in order to know the Taliban.

European man: What is Pan-Pashtunism? 

Afghan refugee: It simply means a strong discrimination or racism by the Pashtuns agianst other ethnic groups which is based on the idea that all Pashtuns are better than other ethnic groups and they are the only tribe who has the right to own the political power of the country. Pan-Pashtunism does not recognize the Durand border between Afghanistan and Pakistan because it devides Pashtuns in two parts. The Pashtun tribe who live in both sides of the borders and Pan-Pashtunism can only get stronger if they bring those Pashtuns from the other side of the border inside Afghanistan and give them Afghan citizenship to increase the number of Pashtuns in Afghanistan by importing Pakistani Pashtuns. Those Pashtuns who are in Pakistani side of the border are mainly Wahabi and they believe they are Pakistani citizens and that is why they are working for the interests of Pakistan in Afghanistan and they use the stupid idea of Pan-Pashtunism as a means of influence and intervention in Afghanistan. They use religion as a motivation for training their soldiers. 

European man: I lost the connection. It is so complicated.

Afghan refugee: Yes, there is also the issue of political parties. Hazbi-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is the closest political party to Taliban with the same mentality and same goals. They are working together.

European man: What are the main points to know the Taliban, just name them shortly?

Afghan refugee: Ok, the main points or bottlenecks to know Taliban can be briefed as below, regardless of their motivation strategies and what mottos and slogans they use there in Pakistan to train them:

1. Religion and sub-division of religion
2. Ethnic groups
3. Pan-Pashtunism
4. Durand border issue
5. Interests of Pakistan in Afghanistan