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Post date: Oct 20, 2014 5:28:37 PM

“A Brief Memoir of an Afghan Refugee” by Abdur Rahman Pazhwak

A book published by Pazhwak Foundation in collaboration with TKG Publishing House in Kabul

Edited by Farhad Pazhwak

“The Afghan war is not a purely religious war. To consider it such is not only incorrect but extremely dangerous. The recommendation based on this theory will particularly lead to serious problems in the future. Only the fundamentalists and fanatics try to give this impression. Zia’s (President Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan) policy of favoritism, if not changed, will lead only to a fanatic Islamic Regime in Afghanistan.”

When my late grandfather, Ambassador Abdur Rahman Pazhwak (1919-1995) wrote these words back in mid-1980s (The original is available in his handwritten notes in English), few understood let alone foresaw the magnitude and implication of his warning for the future of Afghanistan and the world.

Now Ustad Pazhwak’s (Ustad is a honorific title) 300-page memoir will be ready for release in early November 2014 in Kabul by TKG Publishing House in Dari, with the hope of offering it in English next year in the United States. I am honored to have an opportunity to travel to Kabul to participate in a book launching event and symposium to introduce this book and make Ustad Pazhwak more visible and accessible to the Afghan public and beyond.

In these turbulent times when the fate of Afghanistan and the region are at stake, it seems timely to recount the life and legacy of this preeminent Afghan statesman, scholar, and diplomat and share his writings and thoughts with the Afghan people and the world. As the Director of Pazhwak Foundation, I envision this publication as the first step in making Ustad Pazhwak’ s huge collection of original and unpublished writings available for academic research and historical record in Afghanistan and globally.

His writings, including the memoir, contain deep insight into Afghan culture, literature and history while offering an independent, inspirational and personal perspective on what could have been and why the Afghan people often lose the political struggle despite winning on the battlefield – a tragic repetition of Afghan history. The recollection in this book demonstrates a lifelong passion by Ustad Pazhwak inside Afghanistan and at the United Nations to defend human freedom, dignity and equality for all. Pazhwak is fearless in telling the truth and repeatedly stands his ground at enormous personal cost when confronting a multitude of Afghan regimes in the 20^th century and the beginning of a new era, the era of global jihad.

This memoir primarily traces his untold personal struggle to uphold the universal and inalienable values of freedom and democracy in pivotal moments of recent Afghan history insisting that “Only political independence is not important. Freedom and rights of the people and democracy should not be ignored.” Reading this rather personal memoir is like spending time with an ancient soul who offers a gleam of hope for the Afghan youth as a role model for today’s Afghanistan.