Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T02:01:20.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Shiʿa Afghan Community: Between Transnational Links and Internal Hurdles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Clément Therme
Clément Therme*
Affiliation:
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Iran
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article aims to present a political analysis of the relationship between the Shiʿa community in Afghanistan and the new political system that emerged after the US military intervention of 2001. In light of the sectarian conflicts in the greater Middle East and the connection between South West Asia and the Syrian war since 2011, this article illustrates the limits of the social empowerment of the Shiʿa communities in Afghanistan. The article outlines the internal religious scene and the connections between āyatollāhs (marājeʿ), mainly from Iran or Iraq, and Afghan Shiʿite believers. It also examines how the Afghan Shiʿite community differs from those of Iran and Iraq.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , July 2017 , pp. 511 - 521
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

He would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and Melanie Scarlett for their comments and suggestions.

References

Adelkhah, Fariba. “Religious Dependency in Afghanistan: Shia Madrasas as a Religious Mode of Social Assertion?” In The Moral Economy of the Madrasa. Islam and Education Today, edited by Sakurai, Keito and Adelkhah, Fariba (103–130). London: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Baiza, Yahia. “The Hazaras of Afghanistan and their Shi‘a Orientation: An Analytical Historical Survey.” Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies 7, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 151–171. doi: 10.1353/isl.2014.0013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bezhan, Frud. “Abdullah Team under Fire for Khomeini Tribute.” RFE/RL, June 5, 2014. Accessed December 4, 2016. http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-election-abdullah-khomeini-tribute/25411883.htmlGoogle Scholar
Bindemann, Rolf. “Ethnicity Cannot be the Basis for a Common Policy: The Hazara Failure in the Struggle for Afghanistan.” In Afghanistan. Identity, Society and Politics since 1980, edited by Centlivres-Demont, Micheline. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015, 88–91.Google Scholar
Bindemann, Rolf. “The Political Reconstruction of Afghanistan: The Hazaras a Hundred Years after Abdur Rahman.” In Afghanistan. Identity, Society and Politics since 1980, edited by Centlivres-Demont, Micheline. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015, 38–41.Google Scholar
Brunner, Rainer. “Sunnites and Shiites in Modern Islam Politics, Rapprochement and the Role of Al-Azhar.” In The Dynamics of Sunni–Shia Relationships Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media, edited by Maréchal, Brigitte and Zenmi, Sami. London: Hurst & Company, 2013, 25–38.Google Scholar
Constitution de l’Afghanistan [Constitution of Afghanistan]. 9 Mizan 1343–1 October 1964. Kabul: Education Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Dorronsoro, Gilles. “Disparition de l’État et reconfiguration des conflits identitaires en Afghanistan” [Failing state and reconfiguring identity conflicts in Afghanistan]. In Eclats d’Empires. Asie centrale, Caucase, Afghanistan [Pieces of empire. Central Asia, Caucasus and Afghanistan], edited by Laruelle, Marlène and Peyrouse, Sébastien. Paris: Fayard, 2013, 31–8.Google Scholar
Emadi, Hafizullah. “The Hazaras and Their Role in the Process of Political Transformation in Afghanistan.” Central Asian Survey 16, no. 3 (1997): 363–387. doi: 10.1080/02634939708400997CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gammel, Charlie. “The Place of Herat in a Modern Afghanistan: Lessons from the March 1979 Uprising.” Asian Affairs XLVI, no. I (2015): 51–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hachem, Constance Arminjon. Chiisme et Etat. Les clercs à l’épreuve de la modernité [Shiʿism and the state. Clerics and political modernity]. Paris: CNRS, 2013.Google Scholar
Katzman, Kenneth. “Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance.” Congressional Research Service Report, September 17, 2014, 60.Google Scholar
Kutty, Sumitha Narayanan and Fair, Christine C. “Iran’s Interests in Afghanistan Post 2014.” November 7, 2013. Accessed September 28, 2015. http://ssrn.com/abstract=2351445Google Scholar
Mehdi, Muhyiddin. Tabār va zabān mardom-e Hazāra [Origin and language of the Hazāra people]. Kabul: Amiri Publishers, 1394 (2015–16).Google Scholar
Milani, Mohsen M. “Iran’s Policy Towards Afghanistan.” Middle East Journal 60, no. 2 (Spring 2006): 235–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monsutti, Alessandro. “Hazara.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. 2003. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazara-1Google Scholar
Monsutti, Alessandro, Naef, Sylvia, and Sabahi, Farian, eds. The Other Shiites. Bern: Peter Lang, 2007.Google Scholar
Mousavi, Sayed Askar. The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Perry, John R. “Cultural Currents in the Turco-Persian World of Safavid and Post-Safavid Times.” In New Perspectives on Safavid Iran. Empire and Society, edited by Mitchell, Colin P. London: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Roy, Olivier. “Introduction.” In Afghanistan. Identity, Society and Politics since 1980, edited by Centlivres-Demont, Micheline. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015, xv–xviii.Google Scholar
Shahzad, Syed Saleem. “A Voice for the Afghan Insurgency.” Asia Times, June 15, 2007. Accessed November 1, 2016. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IF15Df03.htmlGoogle Scholar
Soroush, Qayoom. “A New Afghan Shia Leader: Return to Quietism versus Political Islam?” Afghanistan Analyst, December 2, 2016. Accessed February 12, 2017. https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/a-new-afghan-shia-leader-return-to-quietism-versus-political-islam/Google Scholar
Tarzi, Amin. “The Maturation of Afghan Historiography.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2013): 129–31. doi: 10.1017/S0020743812001304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarzi, Amin. “Islam and Constitutionalism in Afghanistan.” Journal of Persianate Studies 5, no. 2 (2012): 205–43. doi: 10.1163/18747167-12341244CrossRefGoogle Scholar