A New Anthem for Afghanistan

Afghanistan may soon have a new national anthem, with words calling for national unity while noting the nation’s ethnic diversity. But as in the past, the language in which the anthem is sung has become a matter of dispute.

The current anthem, performed at official government ceremonies, dates back to the mid- Nineties and the mujahedin regime of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani. Its lyrics, considered by some more pan-Islamic than national, are in Dari, one of the country’s official languages and spoken by the Tajiks, Hazaras and other ethnic groups, and also widely used as a second language by others.

Afghanistan’s first national anthem, used during the rule of King Amanullah in the late Twenties, was sung in Pashtu to western-style parade music. There was no national anthem during King Habibullah’s nine-month regime in 1929, and in the subsequent reign of King Mohammed Nadir Shah until 1933, Pashtu lyrics were sung to martial music. While King Mohammad Zaher Shah was in power between 1933 and 1973, the anthem consisted of music without words.

The constitution approved by a Loya Jirga or grand assembly in early 2004 requires that the anthem be performed in Pashtu, another of the country’s official languages and the one used by the country’s majority ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

The Constitution also requires that the anthem include the names of the country’s major ethic groups and contain the words “Allah hu Akbar” (God is Great).

Disagreements over which language to use for the national anthem nearly derailed the Constitutional Loya Jirga, and some of the delegates who attended are still unhappy with the decision.

Former presidential candidate Abdul Hafiz Mansur, editor of the Payam-e-Mujahed, Voice of the Mujahedin, newspaper, was among the delegates who opposed the Loya Jirga’s decision at the time, and still says he would prefer the new anthem to be sung in both Pashtu and Dari, or simply have no lyrics at all.

“There were many Loya Jirga members who didn’t like it,” said Mansur, whose newspaper represents the view of Jamiat-e-Islami, a former mujahedin faction whose stronghold is in the mainly Tajik northeast. “In my opinion, [the new anthem] is a problem and will remain a problem. It should be in both languages.”

Rahnaward Zaryab, a member of the ethnically diverse, 40-member culture and information ministry council that chose the national anthem, told IWPR that the ministry received more than a hundred poems in a variety of languages after it announced the competition in last spring. There is currently a worldwide contest under way to set the words to music.

The first verse of the proposed anthem is the same as the one used in the Seventies during the regime of former President Daoud. They were written by the famed Pashtun post Abdul Rauf Benawa and remained in use until Rabbani came to power in 1992.

Habibullah Rafi, a member of the Afghanistan Academy of Scientists and a political analyst, composed the remainder of the lyrics.

Here are the lyrics to the proposed anthem:

So long as there is the earth and the sky,

So long as the world endures;

So long as there is life in the world,

So long as a single Afghan breathes,

There will be this Afghanistan.

Whether we are Hazara or Baluch,

Pashai or Nuristani,

Uzbek or Turkmen,

Pashtun or Tajik,

Whatever ethnicity we are from,

We are all Afghans. And children of one homeland.

Our chant is freedom, peace and reconstruction,

development, and progress toward success.

This is our sacred call –

God is Great! God is Great!

Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former presidential candidate and former deputy head of the Ittihad-e-Islami faction under the fundamentalist Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, said he could live with either the proposed anthem or the one used during the Rabbani regime.

"It was ratified in the constitutional Loya Jirga that the verses of national anthem should be in Pashtu, and I accept that," said Ahmadzai, a Pashtun. "The anthem played in Dari is also acceptable for me; it's an Islamic anthem."

But Mahmood Shah, 48, a Pashtun in Kabul, said, “The mujahedin government’s national anthem didn’t belong to all of Afghanistan, even though there were holy words in it. It was like a party’s anthem, not a national anthem”.

He told IWPR he believed the new anthem better reflects the modern realities of Afghanistan.

"We as citizens should try to do what the poem says regarding unity and development,” said Mahmood Shah.

The proposed anthem must now be approved by President Hamed Karzai and his cabinet.

Wahidullah Amani is a staff reporter for IWPR in Kabul.