“Unexploded Ordinances”: Afghan War Rugs 1979-2008
The Rugs and Their Labels
Beginning shortly after the Soviet’s invaded Afghanistan in
1979, tribal groups in the region began to weave rugs incorporating war motifs
with traditional geometric, narrative and floral designs. This continued during the violent
Taliban-era and today, with U.S. military presence in the region, new war rug
designs have emerged during the “War on Terror.” This exhibition, titled after one of numerous categories of
designs, will showcase approximately 50 war rugs from a private New York
collection offering a rare opportunity to investigate the complex historical,
political and social realities of this region. The online exhibition is divided into six main categories:
Portrait Rugs
War on Terror Rugs
Red Rugs
Landscape and Map Rugs
Prominent Weapons Rugs
Embedded Weapons Rugs
Information on Afghanistan
Jump to a section:
U.S. and British Involvement in Afghanistan
The Mujahideen and Taliban
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Between the
1950s and 1970s the United States
was involved in Afghanistan
through social and economic development efforts. It was during this period that the U.S. was active
in building infrastructure like the Kabul-Kandahar road, though the real
interest could be argued to reside in Cold War concerns about Communist
advances. In early 1979, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs was
assassinated in Kabul. By the end of that same year the Soviets
invaded the country and the U.S.
involvement temporarily ended, at least officially. Ongoing Cold War efforts to quell the advance
of Communism prodded the U.S.
to support the Islamist Mujahideen rebel fighters financially and through
military aid during the Afghan-Soviet war of the 1980s. In 1988 the weakened Soviet Union, led by
Mikhail Gorbachev, felt the pressure of the world to leave Afghanistan and a treaty was signed between the
Soviet Union and Afghanistan.
The Soviets insisted that the U.S.
leave the mountainous country at the same time. Between 1988 and 1989 the Soviets pulled out
of Afghanistan, as did the United States.
Although
politically independent, the Soviets installed a puppet-leader, Najibullah, as
they pulled out. As might be expected, this
leader failed to secure the support of his people and the Mujahideen turned
their fight inward, towards each other. Islamic fundamentalists, the Taliban, became very powerful and killed
the already overthrown Najibullah. This
helped secure their control of the country and the Taliban era followed, until
September 11, 2001.
By November
13th, 2001 the Taliban government led by Muhammad Mullah Omar, was
removed and a U.S.-supported interim government was established through an
emergency Loya Jerga, a traditional
meeting of the leaders of the country, in Bonn,
Germany in
December. The former Soviet air base at Bagram was rebuilt to accommodate the
American influx, and additional bases were established at Kandahar, Mazar-e Sharif and Farah. This American invasion also involved social
aid, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which sought
to rebuild everything from the educational system, transportation and
infrastructure, agriculture industry, and provide food and shelter for refugees,
widows, children and others affected by many years of war. The U.S. has also been involved in the
difficult process of supporting the new government led by President Hamid
Karzai. As with the Soviet-established
puppet-leader Najibullah, Karzai is seen by many Afghans as a U.S. installed
puppet-leader. Corruption, the thriving
opium industry, the ongoing threat of the Taliban in certain regions, abject
poverty, and errors in the conduct of the American military mission in Afghanistan
have complicated this period of transition.
The British
have had a much longer history in Afghanistan, long before it even
became a modern political state. Prior
to the Cold War, there was the Great Game. This is a term used to refer to the Russian and British military and
psychological battle over control of the Central Asian region. The British knew that Central Asia was the
thoroughfare through which their colonial interests in South
Asia could be threatened. The Soviets saw the region as a vulnerability compromising secure
communications with Siberia and the
easternmost stretches of their union. Things escalated beyond spying and counterintelligence efforts when the
Russians lost numerous soldiers in an assault on Khiva in the mid 19th
century. In 1842 two British soldiers
were captured and hung in the ancient Silk
Route center, Bukhara. Various centers in the region fell to the Russians: Tashkent,
Khodzhent and Kokand,
throughout the later 19th century. These successes pushed their control to the Afghan borders. The British responded by pushing from
northwestern South Asia (modern Pakistan)
towards Afghanistan. Earlier in the century Great Britain
had been embroiled in a series of three Anglo-Afghan wars, as part of the
battle to control the region. The first,
from 1838-1842, and second, from 1878-1880, established periods of British
control over Afghanistan’s
foreign relations. By the latter part of
the 19th century Russia
and Great Britain came to
mutually see Afghanistan
as the buffer zone they both desired.
With British economic exhaustion
arising during WWI, revolution taking place in Russia,
and an increase in nationalism in Britain’s
colonies, Afghanistan
was well positioned to revolt again British authority. In 1919, Amanollah Khan ascended the throne
and declared Afghanistan
independent from Great
Britain. By 1921 Afghanistan
was officially a sovereign country.
Since 9/11 Great Britain has been an active ally of the United States in the effort to eliminate the
Taliban from Afghanistan,
locate Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the northeastern mountains, and play
a significant role in the lesser discussed power struggle over the former
Soviet “stans” of Central Asia—regions full of
valuable resources, including oil.
Sources: Grant Farr, “Afghanistan: U.S. Intervention in,” Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and
North Africa, ed. Philip Mattar, Vol. 1, 2nd edition, NY:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, 66-68; Rafis Abazov, “Great Game,” Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, eds. David
Levinsn and Karen Christensen, Vol. 2, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002,
446-447; Ashraf Ghani, “Anglo-Afghan Wars,” Encyclopedia
of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, ed. Philip Mattar, Vol. 1, 2nd
edition, NY: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, 196-198.
The Mujahideen (or Mujahidin, Mojahidin) formed in Afghanistan in
1978 as a religiously oriented effort to force out the Soviet Marxists. The name Mujahideen is derivative of the
Arabic term jihad, and translates
roughly as “fighters of the holy war.” The Mujahideen were primarily based in Peshawar, Pakistan and fought in
the northern mountains of Afghanistan during the invasion and occupation of the
Soviet Union from 1979-1989. These
warriors were primarily native tribal people, though foreign fighters were also
amongst the ranks numbering in the range of 80,000-150,000.
Financial support for the freedom fighters’
efforts came from Pakistani and American secret intelligence agencies and Iran. In fact, support broke down along sectarian
lines. The Sunni Muslim branch of the
Mujahideen based in Pakistan were supported with money and weapons from the
United States and Saudi Arabia while the Sh’ite branch, based in Iran, was
supported by Iran. It was during the
1980s that Osama bin Laden began to organize and centralize his jihadist
Al-Qaeda (al-Qa’ida) organization in Afghanistan.
In 1988, the seven leading political (and
religiously affiliated) organizations were organized into the Afghan Interim
Government (AIG) through the support of Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and the United States. Although this political union failed, the
Soviets were forced out by February of 1989, at which point the puppet leader
Dr. Mohammad Najibullah (1947-1996), an Afghan leader of the Communist party,
was installed.
In April of 1992, the Mujahideen were successful
in taking Kabul
and Najibullah was forced to step down. At this point the country became an Islamic state. However, infighting amongst the Mujahideen
between 1992 and 1996 created great unrest. Leadership became decentralized and warlords wielded greater power
throughout the country. Further
complicating matters were the large number of foreigners from the Middle East
and Pakistan
who had come to join forces with various parties. Post-1992 many sub-groups of the Mujahideen
reorganized in Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya and Kashmir, recent or
ongoing hotspots for religious and ethnic violence.
Arising out of the confusion of the period of
infighting amongst Mujahideen forces the Taliban (primarily Pashtun tribal
Mujahideen members) formed and captured the major cities of Kandahar
and Herat before grabbing control of Kabul in September 1996 and killing Najibullah, the
Soviet-chosen president of Afghanistan. In 1997, the Taliban took the last major city
of Mazar-i-Sharif,
followed by the former Buddhist center of Bamiyan in 1998 and 1999, where they
destroyed ancient monumental Buddha sculptures.
The Taliban enforced strict Islamic law (shari’a) about the religion, dress,
education and social conduct of all Afghani people. Women were forced to wear the burqa, quit
their professional work outside the home, and girls were not allowed to attend
school. Theft was punished by amputation
and adultery with deadly stonings. Islamic fundamentalism ruled for many years and became as threatening as
the Communism that was feared years prior. This form of fundamentalism also held the extremist view that Muslim
countries were friends and non-Muslim countries were enemies. This view further isolated the country
economically and politically during the 1990s.
In an attempt to replicate the early 7th
century Islamic Caliphate, the Taliban formed a council, from which the
conservative Mullah Muhammad Omar, a Sunni Muslim of the Pushtun tribe, was
selected as the Afghan leader. However,
by 1999 only 85% of the country was ruled by the Taliban, with the remaining
territories under the control of the anti-Taliban alliance led by Ahmad Shah
Massoud (Mas’ud), a Tajik who was assassinated by Al-Qaeda on September 9,
2001. Omar would eventually be removed
from power post-9/11 when the United States
bombed Afghanistan
and destroyed the Taliban government. In
December of 2001, Muhammad Omar went into hiding with Osama bin Laden.
Sources:
Amin Tarzi and Kimberly McCloud. “Taliban.” Encyclopedia
of Islam and the Muslim World. Ed. Richard C. Martin. Vol. 2 New York: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004. P. 676-678; Hafeez Malik. “Taliban.” Encyclopedia of Modern Middle East and North
Africa. Ed. Phillip Mattar. Vol. 4 2nd ed. New York: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004. P. 2154-2155; Amin
Tarzi. “Mujahidin.” Encyclopedia of Islam
and the Muslim World. Ed. Richard C. Martin. Vol. 2 New
York: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004. P. 490-491; Houman A.
Sadri. “Mujahideen.” Encyclopedia of
Modern Asia. Eds. David Levinson and Karen
Christensen. Vol. 4 New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002. P. 208-209; Grant Farr. “Mojahedin.” Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. Vol. 3. 2nd
ed. New York: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004. P.
1560-1562.
In the last days of 1979 the Soviet Union, under the
leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, invaded Afghanistan,
a country the size of the state of Texas,
along the only northern route leading into the mountainous country. Brezhnev was motivated by the threat posed by
the increasing power of Afghan Islamic guerillas. This devastating maneuver was intended to
preserve the fragile Marxist government, led by Noor Muhammad Taraki, who had
been installed by the Soviets in the spring of 1978. After the Soviets took Kabul
they replaced Taraki, who had been overthrown by one of his deputies, with
Karmal Babrak, the leader of the Marxist party in Afghanistan. Essentially, the Soviet Union oversaw the
rule of Afghanistan,
with Babrak serving as a puppet leader.
These events set off serious international outcry and U.S.
President Jimmy Carter acted by leveraging severe trade sanctions, in addition
to the U.S. boycott on the Olympic held in Moscow in 1980. President Ronald Reagan, elected to office in
1980, gave his famous “Evil Empire” speech in 1982. In this speech Reagan proclaimed in
none-too-subtle terms that the foreign forces that sought out war were
“totalitarian evil.” This set off a
lengthy period of undercover support of the rebel Mujahideen, including
financial help, military equipment, and special forces training. The Mujahideen’s tactics and knowledge of the
rugid and foreboding Afghan terrain, combined with U.S. support, proved too much for
the Soviets. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev,
a revolutionary figure, was announced as president of the U.S.S.R. Recognizing that it was necessary for his
economically strapped country to reverse the world’s economic sanctions and
disapproval, agreed in 1988 to withdraw troops. It was in this same year that the United
States and the Soviet Union both agreed to end support of
various factions in Afghanistan. By 1989 the Soviet troops had left and the
Afghan Communist leader Najibullah was installed by the U.S.S.R. Najibullah’s government was aided by the Soviet Union in order to provide some semblance of
stability in the face of fracturing Mujahideen unity.
By 1990 the Cold War that had consumed the former Soviet
Union and United States had essentially ended though a lengthy period of internal
conflict in Afghanistan would ensue—between the Northern Alliance and what
would be known soon enough as the Taliban. Both were loosely united as the Mujahideen in their fight against the
Soviets. By 1990 the United States had
withdrawn from Afghanistan, having little perceived need to continue financing
a presence there, not recognizing the ongoing threats of fundamentalist Islam
that had already instigated civil war in the country as early as the 1970s, and
having been an ongoing power in the country during the modern period. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in
1991 further contributed to the complete pull-out of all forms of external
support in Afghanistan,
pushing the country further into turmoil.
During the Soviet invasion approximately 5 million Afghans
were forced to flee to Iran
and Pakistan,
where refugee camps were established. It
was in such camps, and inspired by warfare and dislocation, that many Afghan
tribal people, primarily women, began to create the many war rug designs seen
here.
Sources: Henry S. Bradsher (updated by Robert L.
Canfield), “Afghanistan: Soviet Intervention in,” Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, ed. Philip
Mattar, Vol. 1, 2nd edition, NY: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004, p.
65-66; Alfred E. Senn, “Afghanistan: Soviet Invasion of,” Dictionary of American History, ed. Stanley I. Kutler, Vol. 1, 3rd
Edition, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003, p. 37-38.
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