Narrative of patriotism in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

This study examines the articulation of nationhood and national identity narratives in the Watandusti ( وطن دوستی , patriotism) textbooks of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2001–2021). Applying Benedict Anderson's theory of ‘imagined community’, alongside Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study examines three Dari-language Watandusti textbooks (Years 7–9, published 2017–2019). The findings reveal a blended narrative of nationhood characterized by a hybrid conceptualization of language community belonging (membership in the Quranic script-language community (Ummah) rather than a pure vernacular readership community), human loyalty (a hierarchical system of loyalty that subordinates republican popular sovereignty to divine sovereignty and traditional norms and institutions) and temporality (an Islamic eschatology mixed with an essentialist national history). This hybridity is observable in the manipulation of both traditional Islamic and modern republican discourses. Despite this blending, the textbook narrative suffers from a lack of dialogicality toward diverging religious and political worldviews.