--- title: TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga | TIME description: Here's what you need to know about loya jirgas, the Afghan council of elders that just recommended President Karzai allow U.S. troops to remain in the country past 2014. canonical: https://time.com/video/TqIcdZiB/ og:title: TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga og:description: Here's what you need to know about loya jirgas, the Afghan council of elders that just recommended President Karzai allow U.S. troops to remain in the country past 2014. og:url: https://time.com/video/TqIcdZiB/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TqIcdZiB/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga twitter:description: Here's what you need to know about loya jirgas, the Afghan council of elders that just recommended President Karzai allow U.S. troops to remain in the country past 2014. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TqIcdZiB/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TqIcdZiB.m3u8) (1:47)  _Published 2013-11-25. Here's what you need to know about loya jirgas, the Afghan council of elders that just recommended President Karzai allow U.S. troops to remain in the country past 2014._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:57 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Officials Say US Troops Killed In Afghan Attack](/video/X3xQ6HX8/) ### Officials Say US Troops Killed In Afghan Attack [Video: The Afghan Army in Action](/video/vNDBNWfn/) ### Video: The Afghan Army in Action [The Afghan Election: The Man Who Could Upset Karzai](/video/I6fwFpaw/) ### The Afghan Election: The Man Who Could Upset Karzai --- ## Transcript As the U. S. and Afghanistan hammer out a security deal for 2014 and beyond, there's a phrase getting tossed around in the media most Westerners probably aren't familiar with. Loya Jirga. Loya Jirga. Loya Jirga. Here's what you need to know. The Loya Jirga, or the grand assembly in Pashto, is a unique event in Afghan politics. Thousands of tribal elders gather in the capital Kabul to debate and ratify a presidential decision. But the representatives are chosen by the president. The Afghan government claims the practice goes back nearly 1, 900 years. But the first modern Loya Jirga met in 1747 to select the first leader of the modern Afghan state. It's basically a town hall style meeting in which representatives try to come to a consensus on a big issue. It met in 2002 to select Hamid Karzai as the country's interim president. And again in 2003 to ratify Afghanistan's proposed new constitution. There have been five Loya Jirga's in the past ten years, but while the Jirga's decisions carry a lot of political weight, 2013's Jirga is merely consultative. It has no actual authority within the Afghan government. It deals with the politically tricky issue of deciding a U. S. status of forces agreement. Loya Jirga's are nearly always unanimous in their decision because delegates who oppose the measure simply leave rather than vote no. If enough important people leave the Jirga is invalidated. This Jirga endorsed a security agreement allowing the U. S. to keep troops in the country after NATO withdraws at the end of next year. But Karzai never committed to signing the deal. Delegates to this Loya Jirga were chosen by Karzai and his aides. Karzai made a public request, they vote independently. But as Times, Nate Rollings, has noted, Afghan leaders typically turn to the Loya Jirga to share responsibility for an unpopular decision. Decisions like the future of American troops in the country. For Time, I'm Elizabeth Hagedorn. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Explains: The Afghan Loya Jirga","description":"Here's what you need to know about loya jirgas, the Afghan council of elders that just recommended President Karzai allow U.S. troops to remain in the country past 2014.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TqIcdZiB/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-11-25T18:42:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TqIcdZiB.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/TqIcdZiB/","duration":"PT1M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/TqIcdZiB/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```