Framing Strategies in Pakhtunistan: Exploring the Role of Pakhtunwali in Defining Ideological, Social and Political Interactions.

Abstract

The Pakhtuns are a large tribal community whose territory overlaps the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both states have attempted to politicize the Pakhtun community through framing their national identity with ethno-national and pan-Islamic narratives. A key feature of these narrative strategies is their attempted alignment with a Pakhtun ideology called the Pakhtunwali. This thesis explores what social effect such narratives have had on Pakhtunwali and related Pakhtun tribal institutions as a result. Implications for regime stability in Afghanistan are assessed using visual models that identify points of congruence between social narratives and their Pakhtun audience. The theoretical foundations established by “framing” in social movement theory literature is relied upon for this study of strategic narratives. These narrative-based framing interactions are considered in the larger context of English School theory’s international and regional “world” societies. Both primary and secondary academic sources were consulted for the case study in the absence of field research. This thesis contributes to the academic field by suggesting potential methods of visualizing ideological competition, as well as encouraging deeper consideration of how common perception of the Pakhtuns have changed as a result.