There was an international gathering of singers from different countries of the world. Singers who were famous in their countries and sang their traditional songs were invited in this grand music festival. As these singers were representing their own cultures and traditions, so they had to sing their traditional songs, wearing their traditional clothes and costumes. Although they were not before-hand told about this condition of wearing traditional clothes yet every participant understood this.

One of the famous Afghan singers was also invited to represent his country and culture on the event. But he had failed to understand that he had to wear the traditional dress and thus he had not taken any such dress. On the night of the performance, he was surprised to see that singers of different countries were wearing their traditional clothes. Then he described his experienced in these words, ‘That night was the most embarrassing day of my life.

Wherever I looked, I saw that there people who were wearing their traditional clothes and were proud and happy to represent their own culture. On the other hand, I was wearing the regular suit - pant and jackets. I tried hard to find an Afghan dress but all my efforts went in vain. In the end, I sang in the same English clothes and people received very peculiarly. I felt so bad about all these that I was not able to sing very well. On that day, I realized how much culture is important and how it makes you distinguished among the different nations of the world.

At the same time, it was the sign of your identity and I felt as if I did not belong to anywhere and I had no identity of my own. People looked at me as they were feeling pity. They might have thought if our culture was very weak or it was too much under the influence of others. Anyhow, that day was an eye-opener for me making me realize the true worth of our culture and traditions.’

True importance of one’s culture, traditions, customs, language and other things cannot be realized while living in our own country. This can be realized by two different means. The first realization comes when we visit any foreign country. People who visit other countries (especially those which are termed to be culturally rich) witness that people have made their cultures as means of uplifting their personal dignity and honor. They enjoy their traditions, happily practice their customs and make it a source of finding similar grounds among the members of their community. In the same way, members of other nations and communities can also enter their lines by the gate of their culture and traditions.

Secondly, true worth of your own culture and traditions are realized by the people who are living in a region or country as minorities and the culture and traditions of the majority makes them feel inferior on a number of occasions. A person shared his experience in this regard in the following words, ‘In our daily lives, we were insulted on a number of occasions. They laughed at our dress, at our foods, at our language, at our houses and the way we met and greeted each other.

Because of this fear, we hesitated to communicate in our language, or wear our traditional dresses and practice our social customs. We were never able to represent our culture confidently. When we were not much proud of our own customs and traditions, we were not left with any other option except to follow the culture and traditions of others but it was also not easy. They laughed at us when we tried to appear or act like them,’

The above reality may be the experience of all the Afghans who migrated to the different countries of the world and lived there as a minority, without full freedom and support to practice their culture.

In one of the famous American novels of modern time, there is present a true story about the experiences of a girl whose family has migrated to a city in United States from a poor African country. The girl narrates the story in the following words, ‘We were invited to a garden dinner party in our neighbors. My parents were a bit hesitant to join a gathering where they were going to be the only black guests.

However, they tried their best to wear their good clothes and went to the party. In the party, they were warmly welcomed but they were not able to merge with the rest of the guests who were all different from them in language and color. Later on, a person who was badly drunk came to them and started laughing at their clothes and gave teasing remarks about their poverty in their native country, language and culture. They were badly embarrassed and silently left the party.’

The above stories come to the mind when we see our society. In our society as well, every passing day is strengthening the trend when we are getting more close to the imported culture and traditions and getting away from the values and traditions of our own. Speaking English is becoming the sign of being civilized and wearing fancy suits earns you more respect and importance in the society. While a person who wears traditional Afghan dress is considered to be backward and illiterate.

We are very conscious about English language while it would be surprising to some of us that citizens of almost all the developed countries of the world feel pride to interact and run the country in their own languages. Japanese speak Japanese, get education in their own language and also work to promote their language. An afghan went to Germany and wanted to ask about an address from someone. He stopped a person and inquired about the place in English. The man, who knew English very well and who also understood him fully, got angry and refused to tell the address and advised him to use either German or his own language.

But it is also a reality that our national languages of Dari and Pashto don’t contain enough scientific knowledge to meet the requirements of modern education. Similarly, it will take time until our languages meet all the requirements of official terms used in office work.

But except for these two compulsions, it is unfortunate if we unnecessarily give importance to a foreign language and ignore our languages which are both rich and historic and good enough to meet all the needs of our social interaction.

Similarly, we are making our kids habitual of using imported clothes and they are also getting addicted to the feeling in which we feel proud on our clothes and our external appearance. This is the first dangerous symptom of the problems that we are going to face by ignoring our language and traditions and imitating others.

There can be some shortcomings in every culture but it doesn’t mean that we should be ashamed of our culture. The responsibility to keep our traditions and culture lies on the shoulders of parents, educators and the people working in media.