GHAYRAT, NANG (CHIVALRY) Loyalty or Nang (Ghayrat) is defined by two sets of normative practices: honorable actions in battle and proper defense of honor. Norms of battle includes rules about who may be attacked, e.g., not civilians, or the proper distribution of war spoils. Honor is given to those who e.g. show fighting skills. It is not unusual for women to engage in battle, although more often their role is to support the male fighters by displaying their head shawl (Paroanai) to spur on the fight. They also reject dishonorable fighters and reward honorable fighters with distinction and are determined differently depending on the community. The social organization of Nang and Qalang creates, among different kinds of honorable fighters. Among the former, where there is more social and economic equality, all warriors who participate equally in the fighting are all honorable. Among the Qalang groups, on the other hand, being an honorable fighter depends on one’s social and economic class: the Khans are the warlords commanding the group and are considered on par with the Nang warriors participating in attacks. (Ahmed:1976) Nang and naamos are the two Pashto words give same meaning for honor, though each has a wider scope of meaning than the English word “honor” itself. Nang is a basic characteristic of Pashtun nature and character, giving …show more content…
Jirga addresss concerns, and look for solutions acceptable to all stakeholders. As an outline of Pashoon life, Jirga is best summarized as a strategic exchange between two or more people to address an issue through verbal communication. The exchange may or may not result in an agreement on the issue. The Jirga process itself leads the parties, including the interveners, to maintain a certain level of formal communication, thus ensuring
Imagine, more than thousands of years ago a class of professional warriors arose, who swore oaths of loyalty to noble lords and fought to the death to defend them in battle. The time was about 1000-1400 CE (Doc. 1). Both Europe and Japan have feudalistic societies at this point in time (Doc. A).
Training and Armour: A second area of important similarities is training and amour. Document E -
The theme of “voiceless woman” throughout the book “the woman warrior” is of great importance. Maxine Kingston narrates several stories in which gives clear examples on how woman in her family are diminished and silenced by Chinese culture. The author not only provides a voice for herself but also for other women in her family and in her community that did not had the opportunity to speak out and tell their stories.
In Milun, honor has a big place in the story. For example, Milun must go to the other country to fight the one knight who claims to be better than him to defend his honor. Although when he realizes he has been beat by him he shows respect for him because he has truly been beat. His son also shows respect when he sees his gray hair and recognizes that he had hurt an older man. This shows the good side of chivalry where the knights respected each other and good duels.
Brothers, cousins, and family are turned to enemies quickly over the small matters in life. Geoffrey Chaucer’s A Knight’s Tale took two cousins with a bond stronger than life, death, and misery, and tore it apart like cotton candy over a worthless love. Arcite and Palamon (our main characters) were prisoners of war of the great Theseus. They claimed to make oaths to one another, and that they would be loyal to each other until death. These claims were nothing, but words. In the first real test of their kinship, their bond withered without a second thought. Oaths of loyalty and bonds of family were virtually unbreakable in these times, or were they? Obviously these warriors cared little for the brotherly connections they shared as they let coincidence and chance dictate their loyalty to one another. They were painted as noble and honorable men, but they were mainly prideful, ignorant, and selfish. By the end of the tale, Arcite himself hardly even knew his true intentions anymore. Palamon and Arcite’s conflict developed exponentially which brought to light how true their loyalties really were.
This website is published by University of West Florida. It includes various information on the history of Afghanistan, culture, people, society, norms, and religious influences. It describes Pashtun’s honor code. Among these codes, the ones I found interesting includes, Zamaka meaning protecting one’s land and Nang meaning honor. According the article, “A Pashtun tribesman must always ensure his honor, and that of his family, is upheld” (“ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN”). In addition, person of high value such as Baba to break such codes is “considered disgraceful and may lead to social punishments such as expulsion of an individual or even a whole family from the group or other harsh punishments such as death” (“ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN”). These are good evidences to argue about events occurred in Baba’s life, a character from The Kite Runner.
Hosseini makes it very apparent that honour is extremely important to people in the Afghan culture and what others think of them means a lot. An Afghan would do anything to keep their honour, even if it means they are unhappy. In both novels, Hosseini shows a number of examples of dishonour and the negative impacts it can have to an individual’s well-being. According to the Honour Based Violence Network, In Afghanistan, ‘honour’ crimes remain very high along with many other forms of violence against women, and are increasing as attitudes fail to keep pace with economic and social changes.
While it was not unusual for the men of the Mongol empire to be out battling for control over foreign lands, the wives of the tribal and clan chiefs would frequently accompany their husband’s during actions against enemies (Hartog 10). The women would, “put on the helmet of war, taking up the bows and arrows of battle, and going forth to defend their nation and their families” alongside their husbands (Weatherford, Secret History).
After a long journey, you find yourself in uncharted territory. As you scout the area, you notice a small village off in the distance. Upon approaching this settlement, you are greeted by some armed townsfolk. They attack you without warning, and take you to a large hall in the center of town. There, you see many men parading around in an intoxicated stupor, showing off their trophies and talking of their success in past battles and wars. They eat with bare hands, ripping at the food and drinking until they can no longer handle themselves, finding a home on the open floor. The hall is dressed with weapons of war, from shields to swords and everything in between. The women are wrapped in chains, fulfilling their only purpose of serving the
This sort of intermingling led to the Indian warrior epic “Bhagavad-Gita” expanding the warrior ethos to a loftier plane - from the war against one’s neighbor to an internal struggle to reach one’s better nature as Arunja, the Gita’s hero, battles against enemies whose names can be translated as greed, sloth, and selfishness – all moral weaknesses that must be overcome.
In many societies both modern and past, warriors are often celebrated and their social ranking elevated above the average citizen. We see evidence of this in the history of the Aztec Empire where “The warrior was a glorified position in the society” (1). They were revered as having quality traits such as being brave, courageous and selfless to others. Other examples in history that hold the warrior on high are the samurai of feudal Japan, and the very similar knights of old England. Both of these titles had to be earned and bestowed upon an individual by a higher political power, usually Royalty or a Feudal Lord. Once given knighthood or the title of samurai, they would also own land and as such became respected members of their communities. In modern, more civilized times, the warrior is still present but there are other non-violent ways to showcase the skills of a warrior, we call them sports. Sports were created as a way to train and showcase a warrior 's skills with out having to risk his life in battle, and as such athletes today are celebrated in the same manner as the warriors of antiquity (2). Although sports were designed to showcase the skills and talents required for war, sadly it does not mean the end of war and as such, there are warriors today who put their lives on the line to defend or fight for the country they reside in, these are the men and women who serve in the military and after wards are given the title of veteran. If warriors are held in
Honour killing is a poem written by Imtiaz Dharker which depicts the struggles of women within countries in the middle-east that oppress women whether it be verbally or physically, and Dharker being a Pakistani woman expressed her views through this piece of work. An honour killing is the act of taking someone’s life who has disrespected themselves and their family, an example of this is a Pakistani woman who was shot by her family because she wanted to divorce the man she was with. The true difference between a western culture and a middle eastern culture can be shown in the fact that the Pakistani senate refused to condemn what happened to this woman and deemed it an honour killing. The poem is an outcry for freedom for woman who are being oppressed and kept down by cultural ideas within the countries which commit these acts.
status among others. The warrior who was most feared was the warrior that got the most
This practice is demonstrated by the emergence of the Yani Cheri ("New Troops") (aka Janissaries). These troops came about by taking young Christian boys and converting them to Islam while making them completely loyal to the Sultan. The parents could avoid taxes by giving their sons over under the devshirme ('child-taking"). This gave a set of crack troops that became the dominant military force in the Asia Minor region and protected
Reciprocity is very important in Pakistani communities. As covered in A. Shaw’s ‘A Pakistani Community in Britain,’ the term lena-dena literally means ‘taking and giving’ and itself implies the obligation of exchange.