Mujahideen Victory Day is a political holiday observed in all parts of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, falling on the 28 April each year. It commemorates the day when

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

rebel forces overthrew the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

in 1992. It is celebrated mostly by former

in Afghanistan. Some Afghans are against celebrating the day because it marks the start of civil war.

Current festivities

*2012: Cancelled due to security reasons, threats by Taliban insurgents. *2007: Afghan President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

awarded medals to Mujahideen veterans in commemoration of the holiday. *2006: Karzai gave a public speech at Kabul's Chaman-e-Hozori park **Also on Victory Day 2006, Afghan parliament member and activist

Malalai Joya Malalai Joya ( ps, ملالۍ جویا) (born 25 April 1978) is an activist, writer, and a politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed f ...

stood to denounce alleged mujahideen atrocities, and was threatened with death by other parliament deputies.

Reporters without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

journalist Omid Yakmanish was beaten by two parliamentarians while attempting to film the debate.

History

After the monarchy in Afghanistan the Marxist

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), ''Hezb-e dimūkrātĩk-e khalq-e Afghānistān'' was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afgha ...

was born took power making Afghanistan a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

country. This did not fare well with the people. The Afghans, especially in the rural areas, viewed the new government as un-Islamic. At this point the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

was going on and due to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

being right on the border of a communist Afghanistan they supported them. Meanwhile, the US was supporting the

resistance causing a civil war between the government and the resistance. This civil war left the country in ruins and gave birth to

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

. In total, approximately one million casualties occurred due to the war and the holiday marks the end of one of the country's most deadly conflicts.

References

{{reflist April observances Victory days Public holidays in Afghanistan Mujahideen

Current festivities

History

See also

References