Teaching about Afghanistan
Afghanistan is beautiful, exciting, mysterious. Although it was not the first terrorist attack on the USA (it was not even the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center), September 11th, 2001 woke up the West to a degree of anger and frustration worldwide (not just in Islamic nations) which had somehow gone unnoticed by western political leaders. The biggest discovery was our ignorance of other cultures. We shall study how this anger arose, and why, and how it relates to Islam. Afghanistan and Central Asia were central to great power politics throughout the nineteenth century "Great Game" and here they come again. The politics relate to oil and gas, war and peace, and to the massive worldwide trade in armaments and drugs (possibly even to "international terrorism" if such a concept is valid).
The flag of Afghanistan
Five years ago if you said "Afghanistan," Americans might reply "Um... Africa?" Yet all of Europe's ancestors came from Central Asia - Celts and Germans, Franks and Slavs, Huns and Magyars, Goths and Visigoths. The famous Silk Road linked Rome, capital of the Roman Empire with Beijing, capital of the Mongol Empire.
Students will study the people, politics and belief systems of this wonderful place - and discover the new countries of Central Asia and the beauty of an important region we all suddenly need to know about. We shall pass through the history, meet the Taliban and see what Osama bin Laden really wants (which has very little to do with America!). The demise of the Ottoman, British and Russian empires created the political conditions of the new republics of Central Asia: the "Stans" and the "cantunnnerstans."
Afghan woman voting in 2004
There will be a strong focus on the role of women in Pashtun, Afghan, Central Asian and Islamic society (and American society too, while we are about it). This will help students uncover some of the mysteries of the burqa and the hijjab while they work out what is reality, struggling to distinguish reality from personal prejudice and political propaganda - including Taliban propaganda and American propaganda.
For starters, read two great novels about Afghanistan: The Horsemen by Joseph Kessel, and Caravans by James Mitchener, and a children's novel called The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. The last two will be used in class to start the class rolling and they are compulsory texts (although very easy to read).
This course will be largely research-based and it is aimed at third and fourth year students. The course work will involve plenty of active student participation. At the start of the course, each student will choose one historical figure to present to the class (this will be graded). These historical presentations will both set the scene for Afghanistan today and also fill large gaps in your general knowledge: famous names like Zoroaster, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamberlane, Babur the Great and Osama Ben Laden ring in our ears, but what do we really know about any of them? They changed world history, but can we hold our own in a conversation when their names crop up? All these people have had a huge impact on Afghan and Central Asian history. We will set the scene by discovering what they did and who they were.
Students will also work in groups to lead discussions, watch films and present chapters from the set texts. They will analyze coverage of Afghanistan and Central Asia in the foreign press. Each student will choose one foreign news source (s)he will study since 2001 and monitor throughout the semester. All students are expected to make use of newspaper and magazine articles. We will compare how Afghanistan has been treated in the US press and (say) the French, Egyptian, Pakistani, Indian, Iranian, Ethiopian, Latin American press. Students with foreign language skills can show them off and get extra credit.
(From the course taught by Dr Robin-Edward Poulton at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond)