The Birth of a Social Movement: A Case Study of Pashtun Tehfuz (Protection Movement)

Abstract

Social movements emerge in all parts of the world due to feelings of discrimination, oppression, and exploitation by any dominated or powerful group. These movements are directed, purposeful, dimensional and sometimes spontaneous towards achieving the social, political and economic cause[s]. Pashtun Protection Movement emerged from miseries, atrocities, humiliation on the hands of combating groups, unnecessary checking at security check posts, bloodshed spreading in the area during sixteen years of militancy, and security operations in North and South Waziristan. The movement is both present physically on the ground and as well in cyberspace in the form of a social media campaign. Methodologically, the research was designed to collect data from extensive fieldwork during the protest movement organized under the title of Pashtun Protection Movement across the country. Data was enriched through participant observation, and analysis was done through content analysis via poetic expression in Pashtu and other movement legacies.