Afghan nomads place hope in poll

By Soutik Biswas BBC News, Kabul

Parwin Mohmand Talwasa says she can make a difference

Parwin Mohmand Talwasa, running in Sunday's Afghan elections, is an unusual member of her nomadic Kuchi community.

In her 40s and a mother of four children, she is a journalist with an American radio station, edits a magazine and drives a car.

"I am a modern Kuchi," smiles Ms Talwasa as she emerges from a restaurant in Kabul after a meeting with other women candidates.

Ten seats have been reserved for Kuchis in the 249-member Afghan parliament - seven for men, three for women.

Seven women are running for the three Kuchi seats - it is a tough call because the candidates have to travel all over the country to solicit votes in the absence of electoral constituencies.

Warlords and drought

There are an estimated 3.5m Kuchis in Afghanistan who, for centuries, have led nomadic lives.

The Pashtun nomads move from one province to another from season to season, pitching patchwork tents in the shadow of the mountains with their sheep, goats, horses, camels and sometimes dogs.

The old life is gone Islamuddin

But the Soviet invasion and the bloody civil war that wrecked the nation shattered the lives and migratory patterns of these proud people.

They began losing their animals to mines, warlords and drought and slid into poverty.

By one estimate, the Kuchis had lost 35,000 animals to mines by 1997.

The rampaging warlords would usually take away their animals during the civil war, leaving them very little.

The nearly decade-long drought meant that many of the animals died, further impoverishing the community.

Today, Kuchis are largely forgotten in a war-ravaged country struggling to pick itself up.

Green grassland

Ms Talwasa says that she can make a difference in the fast-changing lives of the Kuchis, the majority of whom, she says, cannot rely on their animals for a livelihood these days.

"Kuchis are no longer interested in raising animals," she says.

The Soviet invasion and civil war shattered the lives of Kuchis

"Their sheep are mostly dead, so they don't get any wool, which was Afghanistan's major export once."

In her campaign travels through Kuchi tent cities all over the country, Ms Talwasa found that the nomads were tired of scrounging for a living and wanted to settle down and do odd jobs.

"The challenge is to get a plot of land for every Kuchi family. They have never owned land, so we owe it to them. Then the other things like schools and clinics can come," she says.

Most Kuchis are jobless, she says, and do not have a clue about coping in modern-day jobs.

Many of them are struggling as day workers. Most cannot read or write.

Alongside a bumpy, cratered road linking Kabul with Jalalabad, a Kuchi tent city is testimony to how the lives of the nomads have changed for the worse.

Islamuddin lives with his family, a few sheep, a horse and a handsome guard dog in a tatty tent under the Hindu Kush mountains as the busy traffic kicks up clouds of dust from the highway.

This is far removed from any stereotype of an "idyllic" Kuchi lifestyle - sheep grazing in lush green grasslands, their owners watching over them under snow-capped mountains.

"I am a day labourer. I carry bricks and my horse carries loads too. That's the only way I can earn now," says Islamuddin. "The old life is gone."

Moment of change

The only thing that Islamuddin has still not given up is the nomadic habit - he says he will move to Jalalabad when the winter sets in.

The new generation of Kuchis will want modern jobs

Ms Talwasa is one of the luckier Kuchis, born in eastern Nangarhar province to a schoolteacher father - a small portion of Kuchis moved on to jobs early in their lives.

She studied journalism in Kabul, and then worked in newspapers and television.

Today, she edits a magazine and her business card has a prominent picture of a tent to remind people of her roots.

Ms Talwasa is hopeful the Kuchis can prosper, as their elected representatives can pressure the government to give them land and other benefits.

"Nobody bothered about the plight of Kuchis in the past. Now the future looks brighter if we can win and get the government to act," she says.

Islamuddin, for example, is aware of Sunday's election and says he is definitely going to cast a ballot for the first time in his life, although he will not say for which candidate.

The poll may yet prove a moment of change for Afghanistan's nomads.