Watan , loss, and the Pashtun ethno-nationalism

In the latter half of the War on Terrorism, the Pashtun ethno-nationalist resistance movement resurfaces. It claims that the Pashtuns, their land and culture have been the primary victims of the war. The movement reminds the Pashtuns that they have been left divided, their watan (homeland) lost. In this article, I focus on ethno-nationalist poems that express the loss of watan and reawaken the attachment to it. I collect data through an ethnographic method and engage the psycho-analytic concepts of loss, mourning and melancholia as the theoretical framework to highlight the unrelenting attachment to the idea of watan. I argue that while watan has not historically existed in its political form, its imagery nevertheless keeps the connection with past aspirations alive and helps resist the ongoing war and oppression.