The Tabassum movement ( prs, جنبش تبسم,
) was a
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
protest movement in Afghanistan that held several protests in
Kabul and other Afghan cities in mid-November 2015, following the execution by an armed opposition group of nine-year-old
Shukria Tabassum
Shukria Tabassum ( prs, شکریه تبسم) was a Hazara victim killed in the 2015 Zabul massacre in Zabul, Afghanistan. The Tabassum movement was named after her.
Childhood and murder
Shukria Tabassum belonged to the Hazara ethnic group of ...
and six other
Hazaras around 9 November 2015.
The protests were ethnically diverse, had strong participation and leadership by women,
and the
organisational structure
An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.
Organizational structure affects organizational action and provides the foundat ...
avoided concentration of leadership.
Background
Nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...
movements in Afghanistan include
Khudai Khidmatgar, which held long-term campaigns of nonviolent resistance to the British colonial government in the 1930s.
Zabul executions and first protest
The trigger event for the creation of the Tabassum movement was hostage taking by a group claiming allegiance to the
Islamic State in October 2015 and the execution of seven of the hostages,
Hazaras, around 9 November 2015.
One of the victims was Shukria Tabassum, a nine-year-old girl.
In reaction, on 11 November 2015, 2,000–20,000
protestors marched through
Kabul carrying the coffins of the seven victims to the presidential palace,
Arg
Arg or ARG may refer to:
Places
*''Arg'' () means "citadel" in Persian, and may refer to:
**Arg, Iran, a village in Fars Province, Iran
**Arg (Kabul), presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan
**Arg, South Khorasan, a village in South Khorasan P ...
. The marchers said that president
Ashraf Ghani had failed to provide security, called for his government to resign and chanted slogans including "Death to the
Taliban" and "Death to the Islamic State". Ghani appeared on television 10 hours later and negotiations were held between some of the protestors and officials on the protestors' demands for improved security measures.
According to Martine van Bijlert, the protestors who negotiated with the authorities were later rejected as unrepresentative of the larger group. The protest organisers held a press conference presenting their demands on 12 November.
The 11 November protest was self-managed and calm, with human chains formed at the sides of the march to leave pavements available for non-participating pedestrians.
Later protests
Several demonstrations with similar demands calling for improved security took place around Afghanistan in the days following the 11 November Kabul protest.
Membership
The 11 November 2015 Kabul protest included a large component of Hazaras together with other Afghans from diverse demographic groups, with the Zabul executions being seen as "not an attack on one group but on the whole nation".
Tabassum organisers, including Khadim Karimi, contacted activists of non-Hazara ethnic groups to encourage them to participate together in the protests.
Women's participation
Women were highly active in the Tabassum protests in big numbers.
The 11 November Kabul march included a "large group of women
tthe front of the demonstration"
and women carrying one of the coffins.
Gender researcher Nazifa Alizada saw women's participation in the Tabassum movement as deliberately being present and active in public, chanting slogans alongside male marchers, organising and leading the protests, and participating in the negotiations with Ghani that followed the 11 November march. Alizada saw women's involvement in the Tabassum movement as a causal factor for a strong leadership role in the
Enlightenment Movement of protest actions that took place during 2016–2017.
Alizada objected to patriarchal language, with women protesting in
Nangarhar with posters stating "Hazara and
Pashtun are brothers" ( prs, هزاره و پشتون برادر, link=no, ) and pamphlets in Kabul addressing potential participants as "brother".
Methods
The Tabassum movement was a grassroots movement with "collective decision-making processes" that avoided charismatic leadership centred on powerful individuals.
Effects
The Tabassum movement was seen as leading to the 2016–2017 Enlightenment Movement and the 2017
Uprising for Change.
See also
*
People's Peace Movement (Afghanistan)
References
{{reflist, refs=
[{{cite news , date=2015-11-21 , title=Insurgents Kidnap Over 20 Bus Passengers In Zabul , url=https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/insurgents-kidnap-over-20-bus-passengers-zabul , work= TOLOnews , access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/IaVKa , archive-date=2021-06-04 , url-status=live]
[{{cite press release , date=2015-11-11 , title=UNAMA condemns murder of seven civilians in Zabul , url=https://unama.unmissions.org/unama-condemns-murder-seven-civilians-zabul , publisher= United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan , access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/KYqeN , archive-date=2021-06-04 , url-status=live]
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[{{cite web , last=Younas , first=Mohammad , date=2015-11-15 , title=Shukria Tabassum , url=https://www.hazarapeople.com/2015/11/15/shukria-tabassum/ , website=hazarapeople.com , publisher=Hazara International , access-date=2016-01-04 , archive-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/HjrGt , url-status=live]
[{{cite news , last=Mashal , first=Mujib , date=2015-11-11 , title=Protest in Kabul for More Security after Seven Hostages Are Beheaded , url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/world/asia/afghanistan-protest-taliban-isis-hazara.html , newspaper= The New York Times , access-date= 2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/GC2Gk , archive-date=2021-06-04 , url-status=live]
[{{cite web , last=Alizada , first=Nazifa , date=2016-11-30 , title=One Year After Tabassum, Afghan Women Search for Their Own Voice , url=https://deeply.thenewhumanitarian.org/womenandgirls/community/2016/11/30/one-year-tabassum-afghan-women-search-voice , website=Women and Girls , publisher=]News Deeply
News Deeply is an online journalism and technology company, based in New York City, specializing in single-issue news websites and building online databases of stakeholders. Its flagship site, ''Syria Deeply'', was founded by Lara Setrakian and Az ...
, via= The New Humanitarian , access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/kAOlf , archive-date=2021-06-04 , url-status=live
[{{cite web , last=van Bijlert , first=Martine , date=2015-11-12 , title=The 'Zabul Seven' Protests: Who speaks for the victims? , url=https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/the-zabul-seven-protests-who-speaks-for-the-victims , website=afghanistan-analysts.org , publisher=]Afghanistan Analysts Network
The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) is an independent non-profit policy research and analysis organization. Founded in 2009, it is registered as an association in Germany and Afghanistan, funded in large part by Scandinavian countries, and has a ...
, access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131202642/https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/the-zabul-seven-protests-who-speaks-for-the-victims , archive-date=2020-01-31 , url-status=dead
[{{cite news , title=Afghan Hazara killings spark Kabul march of thousands , date=2015-11-11 , work= BBC News , url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34783511 , access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://archive.today/6DuTU , archive-date=2015-11-11 , url-status=live]
[{{cite report , last1=Bose , first1=Srinjoy , last2=Bizhan , first2=Nematullah , last3=Ibrahimi , first3=Niamatullah , date=February 2019 , title=Youth Protest Movements in Afghanistan: Seeking Voice and Agency , url=https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/pw145-youth-protest-movements-in-afghanistan-seeking-voice-and-agency.pdf , series=Peaceworks , volume=145 , location=Washington, D.C. , publisher= United States Institute of Peace , isbn=978-1-60127-753-4 , access-date=2021-06-04 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331100437/https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/pw145-youth-protest-movements-in-afghanistan-seeking-voice-and-agency.pdf , archive-date=2021-03-31 , url-status=live]
[{{cite web , last1=Zia , first1=Mohammad Ehsan , author-link=Mohammed Ehsan Zia , last2=Thompson , first2=Tabatha , date=2020-05-07 , title=Afghan Grassroots Activists Could Help Build a Lasting Peace , url=https://www.usip.org/blog/2020/05/afghan-grassroots-activists-could-help-build-lasting-peace , website=The Olive Branch , publisher= United States Institute of Peace , access-date=2021-06-05 , archive-url=https://archive.today/4csZx , archive-date=2021-06-03 , url-status=dead]
[{{cite web , last=Stephan , first=Maria J. , author-link=Maria Stephan , date=2019-07-23 , title=People Power Can Boost the Afghan Peace Process , url=https://www.usip.org/blog/2019/07/people-power-can-boost-afghan-peace-process , website=The Olive Branch , publisher= United States Institute of Peace , access-date=2021-06-05 , archive-url=https://archive.today/TVccS , archive-date=2021-06-05 , url-status=live]
2015 in Kabul
2015 protests
Hazara politics
November 2015 events in Afghanistan
Protests in Afghanistan