The People's Peace Movement or Helmand Peace Convoy is a

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance, 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, construct ...

grassroots group in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, created in March 2018 after a suicide car bomb attack on 19 March in

Lashkargah Lashkargāh (; ), historically called Bost or Boost (), is a city in southwestern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province. It is located in Lashkargah District, where the Arghandab River merges into the Helmand River. The city has a po ...

Helmand Province Helmand (Pashto language, Pashto/Dari language, Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering ...

. The PPM calls for the military forces of both the

government of Afghanistan The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and informally known as the Taliban government, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is ...

and the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

to implement a

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

and advance the

Afghan peace process Peace processes have taken place during several phases of the Afghanistan conflict, which has lasted since the 1978 Saur Revolution. The National Reconciliation Policy during the Karmal and Najibullah governments from the mid-1980s to 1992 ...

. The group marched across Afghanistan to

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, where it met leaders of both parties and conducted

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

s in front of diplomatic posts, before continuing its march to

Balkh Balkh is a town in the Balkh Province of Afghanistan. It is located approximately to the northwest of the provincial capital city Mazar-i-Sharif and approximately to the south of the Amu Darya and the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border. In 2021 ...

and

Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

, arriving in September 2018.

Background

Nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance, 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, construct ...

movements in Afghanistan include

Khudai Khidmatgar Khudai Khidmatgar () was an Indian, predominantly Pashtun, nonviolent resistance movement known for its activism against the British Raj in colonial India; it was based in the country's North-West Frontier Province (present-day Khyber Pakhtun ...

in the 1930s, and in the 2010s, the Tabassum movement in 2015, the Enlightenment Movement during 2016–2017 and Uprising for Change in 2017. People's Peace Movement is named as unprecedented nonviolent movement in recent Afghan history by

International Center on Nonviolent Conflict The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) is a nonprofit educational foundation, founded by Jack DuVall and Peter Ackerman in 2002."Peter Ackerman - Founding Chair". International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. 2009. Archived from t ...

Creation

The People's Peace Movement was created in

after a car bomb

suicide attack A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

killed 17 civilians on 19 March 2018. Activists held a protest in Lashkargah against the killings, calling for peace, not revenge, and were joined by parents of the victims. The activists planned a march to spread their message, to which the Taliban objected. On 29 March, the activists stated that they would start a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

until the government and Taliban forces declared a ceasefire of at least two days. Other sit-ins took place around Afghanistan to support the Lashkargah protestors. A month later, eight of them started a march towards

, walking through local villages and talking to the residents. In June 2018, they marched from

Maidan Wardak Province Wardak is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in central Afghanistan. Its capital is the closest provincial city to Kabul. Wardak Have 8 District. Wardak or Wardag (Dari/Pashto: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in ...

Ghazni Ghazni (, ), historically known as Ghaznayn () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana (), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan with a population of around 190,000 people. The city is strategica ...

, reaching a total of 65 participants. The marchers regularly stopped at mosques to hold talks with locals, who typically provided food for the marchers. The size of the group grew to 100, arrived in Kabul on 18 June, and presented demands for a peace process to the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

and to the

. The marchers met with Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan former politician and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was 2021 Taliban offensive, overthrown by the Ta ...

personally. They held

s in front of diplomatic offices and embassies in protest at the government's and Taliban's refusal to declare a ceasefire. The march then continued to

and

, arriving in September.

Leadership and membership

During 2018 and 2019, one of PPM's main leaders were Iqbal Khyber (or ''Khaibar''). Qais Hashemi, a

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

poet promoted the main narrative along with

Sharif Alizai Sharīf or Sherif (, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the famil ...

who used the influence of media and other civil society networks to grow awareness and garner support for the movement. Many other individuals also contributed to the move. Women participated in the marches during the daytime, returning home in the evenings, "due to traditional sensitivities around spending nights on the roads".

Points of view

Role of foreign powers

During the late March 2018 phase of initial protests, Qais Hashimi of the PPM described both the Afghan government and the Taliban as "puppets of foreigners". In March 2019, PPM activists, including Khyber, stated that regional and global powers, including the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(US),

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and India were opposed to the

, instead seeking their own benefits from the war. Mohammad Nekzad of the PPM stated that "Taliban and Afghan forces are brothers" and that high-ranked people did not have the right to create war between them.

Methods and actions

PPM uses

techniques such as marches in its aims of promoting peace in Afghanistan. During 2018 and 2019, PPM activists made several more marches throughout Afghanistan, including regions controlled by the Taliban. Their original 2018 march passed through six Afghan provinces. In December 2019, PPM activists marched from

Herat Province Herat ( Dari: هرات) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city a ...

and entered

Farah Province Farah (Pashto :فرَاه /) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country on the border with Iran. It is a spacious and sparsely populated province, divided into eleven Districts of Afghanistan, dist ...

. In January 2021, the PPM called for the government and the Taliban to accept

mediation Mediation is a structured, voluntary process for resolving disputes, facilitated by a neutral third party known as the mediator. It is a structured, interactive process where an independent third party, the mediator, assists disputing parties ...

by a neutral third party in their peace negotiations.

Independence

During 2018–2019, the Taliban claimed that the PPM was funded by the Afghan government. The PPM denied the claim. In 2018, Maria J. Stephan and Johnny Walsh of the

United States Institute of Peace The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American independent, nonprofit, national institute funded by the U.S. Congress and tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. See alsPDF on USIP website. It provides rese ...

(USIP) saw the PPM as a sign of a widespread desire for peace across diverse components of Afghan society. They stated that the PPM had gained a reputation for independence from US, Afghan and Taliban military forces and from local and international political groups, as a genuine grassroots group.

Harassment

The Taliban kidnapped PPM members several times. The fourth incident took place during a December 2019 march. Twenty-seven PPM activists were kidnapped by the Taliban while travelling by car on 24 or 25 December and released on 26 December.

Analysis

The PPM inspired other groups for peaceful protests, including a June 2018 all-female street protest in

that "welcomed" the Taliban with flowers and demanded that an existing ceasefire be extended. In 2019, Nancy Lindborg and Andrew Wilder of USIP argued that PPM and other grassroots peace-related activities in Afghanistan, including

peace and conflict studies Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violence, violent and nonviolence, nonviolent behaviors as well as the structural violence, structural mechanisms attending Conflict (process), conflicts (including ...

courses that were implemented in several Afghan universities, could "increase much-needed pressure on fghanleaders to take peace more seriously." Lindborg and Wilder quoted a civil society activist who stated, "The Taliban are afraid of the people being mobilized."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , title= Afghan People's Peace Movement marchers 'kidnapped by Taliban' , date= 2019-12-25 , newspaper=

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, url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50911882 , access-date= 2021-06-03 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20210530063431/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50911882 , archive-date= 2021-05-30 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= Kidnapped Afghan People's Peace Movement marchers freed , date= 2019-12-26 , newspaper=

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TOLOnews Tolo News (Dari and Pashto: ), stylized TOLOnews, is an Afghan news channel and website broadcasting from Kabul. Owned by the Moby Media Group, it was launched in August 2010 as Afghanistan's first twenty-four hour news channel. TOLOnews is av ...

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The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

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NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

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, date = 2018-06-29 , url = https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/06/war-weary-afghans-march-peace , access-date = 2021-06-03 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20210530064016/https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/06/war-weary-afghans-march-peace , archive-date= 2021-05-30 , url-status=dead {{cite web , last1 = Kapur , first1 = Roshni , title= How Afghanistan's peace movement is winning hearts and minds , website= Waging Nonviolence , date = 2018-09-13 , url = https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/09/afghanistan-peace-movement-winning-hearts-minds , access-date = 2021-06-03 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210530064951/https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/09/afghanistan-peace-movement-winning-hearts-minds , archive-date= 2021-05-30 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= Govt, Taliban should agree on third party mediation: PPM , date= 2021-01-06 , newspaper=

Pajhwok Afghan News Pajhwok Afghan News () () is Afghanistan's largest independent news agency with its headquarters in Kabul. In addition to 24-hour general news reporting, it also publishes special investigative reports about important topics relating to Afghanist ...

, url= https://pajhwok.com/2021/01/06/govt-taliban-should-agree-on-third-party-mediation-ppm , access-date= 2021-06-03 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20210603194602/https://pajhwok.com/2021/01/06/govt-taliban-should-agree-on-third-party-mediation-ppm/ , archive-date= 2021-06-03 , url-status=live {{cite web , last1 = Stephan , first1 = Maria J. , title= People Power Can Boost the Afghan Peace Process , website= USIP , date = 2019-07-23 , url = https://www.usip.org/blog/2019/07/people-power-can-boost-afghan-peace-process , access-date = 2021-06-05 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20210604230817/https://www.usip.org/blog/2019/07/people-power-can-boost-afghan-peace-process , archive-date= 2021-06-04 , url-status=dead {{cite news , last1= Akhgar , first1= Tameem , title= Afghan activist says Taliban freed 27 members of his group , date= 2019-12-26 , newspaper= ABC News , url= https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-activist-taliban-freed-27-members-group-67933405 , access-date= 2021-06-06 , archive-url= https://archive.today/20210606191850/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-activist-taliban-freed-27-members-group-67933405 , archive-date= 2021-06-06 , url-status=live {{void, templates: {{cite news , last1= , first1= , last2= , first2= , pages= , language = , title= , trans-title = , date= , publisher= , newspaper= , url= , access-date= 2021... {{cite web , last1 = , first1 = , last2= , first2= , author-link = , language = , title= , trans-title = , work = , publisher = , website= , date = , url = , format = , doi = , access-date = 2021... Non-profit organisations based in Afghanistan 2018 establishments in Afghanistan Organizations established in 2018 Afghan peace process