Sectarism is enhancing the isolation of the groups...

Dear Rob,
1) Yes, one of the reasons for Pashtuns rigidity seems to be their Pakhtunwali. They have a huge respect to their Pakhtunwali customs and code of rules. But it would not be fair to call that as an exclusive characteristics of the Pashutn community. In my previous emails I pointed that nearly all Afghan ethnic communities have been/are somehow living with tribal sensitivities. The others, especially the Hazaras, have been more flexible in terms of their changing, because of many reasons. You can count on the historical prejudice and discrimination against Hazaras as one of the reasons for their flexibility to adapt changes. Pashtuns are now afraid of losing the power which may result in their further backward status.
I want to insist that in our world no one can live and sustain as an island. Sectarism in all its forms, be religious or ethnical, is enhancing the isolation of the groups. I don’t feel if one can underestimate the negative role of Pashtun intellectual and political groups in fueling the sectarian sensitivities of the Pashtun community. They usually talk in a negative deviating manner about the past and about the realities. For example they are insisting on being independent and anti-foreigners in a negative way. They rarely explain the inter-connected relations between the world communities. They always refer to the history in a way that preaches hatred and hostilities against the foreigners. It may good in some places, but it caused lots of misunderstanding and misbehaviors in lots of other cases.
One thing is clear: no one is right in an exclusive way. You can find the truth with speaking and discussing the realities from different perspectives. This is a good practice. One has to criticize the past in a scientific manner. You cannot change the past, but you can turn it into enlightening lessons. The past rulers have gone, good or bad. The question is how to live in our time and how to deal with all the exigencies of our own time.
Pashtuns do need to change their views and behaviors, the same as Hazaras and others. Perhaps all of us have big responsibilities in this regard.
Aziz Royesh