Everything has a meaning. It is up to us to acknowledge a
practice or values we hold, determine its meaning based on simply knowledge and
life experience and the level of importance of bringing it into ones life.
Following or participating in a particular culture, we have to compartmentalize
certain traditions based on religious beliefs and social expectations and also
bring together universal traditions that have a deep meaning connected to how
we choose to live our life on a daily basis.
Being part of the community that strongly believes in
keeping up Afghan cultural values and traditions, the process for implementing those values that have a historical
past in Afghanistan and practicing current societal expectations and demands of
America can be a challenge. The biggest challenge of implementing Afghan values
and morals standards outside Afghanistan is for young adults as many of them don’t have a
point of reference. Sure, parents can be great role models for today’s young
afghans, however, it is their peers they learn the most from. The majority of
Afghans under 30 years old ( most afghans fled after the Cold war in late
1970’s) were born outside Afghanistan and have only the culture of whichever country their
families migrated to. Some have adopted
that culture as their own as daily life might have warranted it. This Is easy
to do, however, it is up to the parents to teach them and guide them and
instill those values they were raised with and witnessed for most of their
lives, they will have something to pass down to their own children as many of
us are experiencing parenthood and demanding careers. We are trying to figure out our own bi-
cultural identities so that our children have a strong frame of reference and
avoid confusion of what is truly
important in ones life regardless of any cultural identity, such as
education. As Aforementioned, peers play a great role in our cultural beliefs
and practices, and being involved and part of a local Afghan community becomes
key. Local Afghan communities are usually structured by family association and
business.
For Afghans to live a balanced cultural life, their faith, family orientation and values, Afghan cultural traditions (we all love to do
the Attan!) and current societies expectations and innovations have to come into focus and prioritized. Today’s young
Afghans are lucky to be able to pick and chose what they like about each
culture they are apart of to implement within their own lives and their future
families. Living bi-culturally has great benefits as we are the agents of
change within both societies. In the American society, we can educate and live
as Afghan role models that our grandparents and their parents as well as our
own, would be proud of us regardless of how we labeled ourselves culturally. Being
bi-culture can create a deeper understanding of a different society and its
practices and being the bridge that helps understand and accept oneself and
each other. Being able to choose cultural traits of our family background and
our daily life, we have to dig further to understand the meaning of what is
cultural and what are merely our habits and what is important to us and our
faith and family?
Young Afghans get to create their own culture. We get to ask
ourselves, what is important to me? What do I like about our culture? What do I
do everyday that’s part of my current culture and meaningful to me? What do I want to teach my future kids and
practice daily as a family? Faith should play a big role. This is our responsibility
to our children and theirs as Afghanistan might merely become a word to them
without personal association. It is important to keep this identity alive as it
has so many beautiful cultural traits and traditions that include our faith and
the togetherness of family and creating love for each other. This is what a
balanced life looks like, whether you want to call it Afghan or something else.
