Co to znaczy być męczennikiem? Termin szahid w afgańskim i tadżyckim dyskursie politycznym w końcu XX w.

This article is focused on the significance and the meaning of the term shahid in the context of the socio-political changes in Afghanistan and Tajikistan during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Press materials and other materials in the Dari, Pashto and Tajik languages printed at that time were analysed. The findings have shown how the conflict between the various areas of interest led to the extension of the semantic field of the noun shahid and the changes in its use in everyday language. Both in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, this term grew in popularity and came to be used at an ideological level – and not only by the Islam-oriented fractions – to urge people to war and to increase its symbolic significance and the rank of its fatalities.