Pashtunwali is the sum total of collective expectations of the group from its members to conform to the totality of norms and customs that ensure the group's survival as a distinct socio-cultural entity.
There are no state institutions to ensure the implementation of this unwritten code of life but Pashtun members of the society internalize these social norms to such an extent that they directly become a matter of one’s conscience than an executive order of a discrete authority.
Therefore, in certain respects, Pukhtunwali is no less than a religion as it relies on internal mechanisms of ... Whether one is a Pashtun or not depends on how one lives his or her life, more so than what they profess to be or even who their father is. This historically accurate precedent takes into account that even if born an ethnic Afghan, no one is Pashtun by default. By the most ancient of orthodox Pashtunwali law - Code of Conduct, however, a person can be Pashtun only if their father was. This ancient law has assured the ethnic Afghans, synonomous with the ethnic Pashtuns, of being the world's largest patriarchal tribal group in existen Many of Pashtunwali's most basic precepts are rooted in Mosaic Law. Are all ethnic Afghans also Pashtuns? Contemporaries may say yes, while the orthodox will often say no.
For those who say no, the deciding factor is dependent on how one lives one's life. Many say that even if someone is born an ethnic Afghan, that person is not a Pashtun unless he lives according to Pashtunwali. Being a Pashtun means an ancient religious, spiritual, and communal identity tied to a specific set of beliefs, codes, and a linear
