Sikhs in Afghanistan elections? Awesome!

I suppose most Americans wouldn't know, and couldn't care either, that parliamentary elections in Afghanistan are only ten days away.  The Taliban there certainly is focused on it, unfortunately.

What I didn't know was that there are Sikh candidates in those Afghan elections. Yes, you read that correctly--Sikh candidates in Afghan elections.

Pritpal Singh Pal and Anarkali Kaur Honaryar are running for positions in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga, the 250-seat lower house of parliament, elections for which are scheduled on September 18.
If they win, they will become the first democratically elected non-Muslim parliamentarians in the country — Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have held parliamentary positions before through nomination.

This, yet again, reveals the multiple threads of history that bind together the peoples of the Indian Subcontinent. The two candidates are descendants of people who have lived in the modern state of Afghanistan for centuries:

Pal says it is a common misconception that all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are Punjabis who moved to Afghanistan from India years ago. In fact, many members of this community consider themselves to be the original Afghans who never converted to Islam. And this sense of rootedness only gives their pursuit of governmental representation in Afghanistan more zeal....
“I’ve travelled to many countries, including India,” she says at her campaign office in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul. “But I want to serve my own country and countrymen. I love Afghanistan.”

 I hope they win. Because, more than anything, their elections will be the another example of how we can democratically make the Taliban go away. Particularly if the Sikh woman, Pal, wins. A minority religion (infidel!) and a woman.  A Taliban nightmare :)

To honor the India-Afghan connection, here is a scene from Dharmatma, which was shot in Afghanistan in the days before the civil war, and featuring Feroz Khan, who was a Pashtun himself