Settam-e-Melli ( ps, ستم ملي, lit=National Opression) was a political movement in

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 ...

, led by Tahir Badakhshi. The organization was affiliated with the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...

, and was opposed by both the Afghan monarchy and by the

Soviet 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 nation ...

-aligned People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Its followers were mostly Persian speakers. Most of its members were non-

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

— Tajik, Uzbek, and other minorities—and it has been variously described as an anti-Pashtun separatist group and as a Tajik and Uzbek separatist group.Diego Cordovez & Selig S. Harrison, ''Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal'' (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 34-35.Senzil Nawid, Language Policy in Afghanistan: Linguistic Diversity and National Unity, in ''Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors'' (Koninklijke Brill NV 2012), p. 42.Frank Clements, Badakhshi, Tahir (?-1979), in ''Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2003), p. 37. "Information on Settam-e-Melli is vague and contradictory, but it appears to have been an anti-Pashtun leftist mutation." The group was founded in 1968 by Tahir Badakhshi, a Tajik who formerly had been a member of the Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and split with the party. The group emphasized "militant class struggle and

mass mobilization Mass mobilization (also known as social mobilization or popular mobilization) refers to mobilization of civilian population as part of contentious politics. Mass mobilization is defined as a process that engages and motivates a wide range of partne ...

of peasants" and recruited Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other minorities from

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) 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; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and the northeastern

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. Responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the American ambassador to Afghanistan,

Adolph Dubs Adolph Dubs (August 4, 1920 – February 14, 1979), also known as Spike Dubs, was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 13, 1978, until his death in 1979. He was killed during a rescue attem ...

, on February 14, 1979 at the Kabul Hotel is sometimes attributed to Settam-e-Melli, but the true identity and aims of the militants who kidnapped Dubs is uncertain, and the circumstances are "still clouded." Some consider the allegation that Settam-e-Melli was responsible to be "dubious," pointing to a former Kabul policeman who has claimed that at least one kidnapper was part of the

Parcham Parcham (Pashto and prs, پرچم, ) was the name of one of the factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, formed in 1967 following its split and led for most of its history by Babrak Karmal and Mohammed Najibullah. The basic ...

faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. During the Taraki- Amin period, the Setamis withdrew to the Afghan countryside, though as an urban movement this removed them from their powerbase. During the 1979-1986 rule of communist president

Babrak Karmal Babrak Karmal (Farsi/ Pashto: , born Sultan Hussein; 6 January 1929 – 1 or 3 December 1996) was an Afghan revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Afghanistan, serving in the post of General Secretary of the People's Democratic Pa ...

, the Setamis became closer with the government, partially as Karmal had been a personal friend of Badakhshi (who had been killed in 1979).Gilles Dorronsoro.
Revolution unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the present.
C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2005. , A Setami leader, Bashir Baghlani, went over to the government in 1983, and was made

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

.J. Bruce Amstutz.
Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation
'. DIANE Publishing, 1994. , The Setamis continued to play a prominent role among the non-Pashtun northeastern Afghan militias, playing a part in Ahmad Shah Massoud's defeat at Shahr-i Bozorg in 1990.

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{{DRA topics Communist parties in Afghanistan Defunct political parties in Afghanistan Political parties in Afghanistan