Attan
THE STORY
The attan is the Afghan national dance. Pashtuns started the attan. I know that it was for the Pashtuns to forget about war. All the Pashtun soldiers united against everything through the attan. Dance is a way of connecting to your soul.
My family and I talk by phone and Facebook a lot. In 2008, I was there for the summer for 2 and a half months. Language is definitely a thing that’s hard. I know Dari, and I’m learning Pashto, but a lot of people just speak one or the other so it’s hard to communicate. We all have the same Afghan roots though, even if we have different ethnicities. I think that the mix is actually what makes us Afghan. There are many Pashtuns in Jalalabad, Khandahar, and Kabul for example, but there are lots of other groups too, like my parents’ mixed marriage. I feel like ethnicity is less of a barrier, and differences in religious ideas more so. Shias and Sunnis do not marry for example, which would mean that someone from Herat would be very unlikely to marry someone from Ghazni. But, most Afghans are Sunni, so it tends to be less of a barrier.
THE STORYTELLER
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Tajik, Pashtun
STORY ID: 00029