Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Bogart, Michele H | Goodarzi, Shoki
Date
2012-12-01
Keywords
Afghanistan, Kandahar, Shahidano | Art history
Department
Department of Art History and Criticism
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71207
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
The Shahidano Chawk is a monument in the center of Kandahar City, Afghanistan. It was constructed after World War II, in the period between 1946 and 1948. This thesis explores the various meanings the monument has embodied since its creation. It was originally an ethno-nationalist monument which used two highly charged events, the 1843 massacre at the Herat gate, and the 1880 battle of Maiwand, as motivational motifs to help cement the Pashtun people at a time of crisis. The crisis was the formation of Pakistan, and the transition of the Durand Line from a line demarcating a sphere of influence into a hard international boundary. Later, the martyr motif created a powerful connection with the Afghan and Arab Mujahedeen who fought together against the Soviet invasion from 1979 to 1989. The September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States led to me being deployed to Kandahar where my military unit used an image of the monument on a medal known as a battalion coin. The Shahidano Chawk does not have a fixed meaning, but rather it has been appropriated as an important public expression of values by many groups who attempted to control narratives about their identity and the region by claiming this monument in the bustling center of Kandahar City. | 37 pages
Recommended Citation
Donovan, William E., "Da Shahidano Chawk: Martyrs' Square in Kandahar City, Afghanistan" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 413.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/413