Credit goes to Wikipedia for a concise explanation. 'Shura' is the Arabic word for consultation. It is mentioned in the Quran three times as a praiseworthy activity. The point is that you hold a consultation with those that will be affected by that decision. Often the term is used for forms of parliaments or congresses. It links directly back to Afghan culture whereas shuras are held among tribes, ethnicities and regions on important matters affecting all.
A tie in to each of the entities of this blog title does exist, interestingly enough. In Persian and Dari in Afghanistan, the term شوروی, shuravi is used for 'Soviet' (the etymology being related to council). In Tajik language it is written Шӯравӣ. Again, credit goes to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shura for this information. It is somewhat disappointing to Google and not find a lot of substantive results for 'Shura.' Perhaps its necessary to pick up a book first, and then Google in Arabic second. It could be deeper in the search results, it could be more searchable in the news. It would be interesting to study how they work and make a comparative analysis to western democratic institutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment