Baamdaad – House of Poetry in Exile

My latest worldwide effort is the House of Poetry in Exile Baamdaad (Dawn), which calls on poets, writers, literary and cultural associations worldwide to support freedom of expression through art and poetry in Afghanistan.
In December 2022 The Taliban officially banned the writing, publishing and reading of poetry from public life. After that, I decided that it should become the mission of poets around the world to write poetry in support of the people and poets of Afghanistan.

I have called on poets around the world to write poetry in support of Afghanistan, with the support of PEN France, PEN Argentina and many other literary associations around the world.
This initiative has also gained the support of the Rotterdam based Poetry International 2023 festival.

The response has been great! Our goal is to publish these poems both online and offline.

The translation of the website of BAAMDAAD to English is a work in progress.

Half a century of struggle

In 2021 I finished the book I started working on before the fall of Afghanistan. It is called ‘Half a Century of Struggle and Politics –a Conversation with Abdul Hamid Mohatat, Former Vice President of Afghanistan’.

The book is an autobiographical account of the life and political memoirs of Abdul Hamid Muhtat, ex-Vice President of Afghanistan from 1986 to 1992. The book was published in January 2022 by Nabisht Publishing House and circulated by Lulu online book publishing house (www.lulu.com).

The book is not a mere account of Mr. Muhtat life. It also highlights important events, important personalities of recent Afghan history and the power-broker deals on regional and international level that have led to the rise and fall of Afghan Republics from 1972 to 2021.

Mr. Muhaat, a young Soviet-era educated military officer, led a group of military officers that toppled the century old monarchy regime in Afghanistan and established the first Republic led by President Daoud in 1973. In the decades afterwards he held key positions in the ensuing regime as a minister, ambassador, deputy prime minister and vice president. He also had close rapport with the legendary commander Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assisinated by Al-Qaeda in 2001.

The book reveals information so far undisclosed that highlights the root causes of the rise and fall of the subsequent republics in Afghanistan with their social and historical underpinnigns. It also discusses the reasons behind the rise of Islamic radicalism and its international repercussions in Afghanistan. Mr. Muhtaat, aside from being a politician and military officer, has been a published historian and a multifaceted academic personality.
The book is not just a dry recount of political events, rather it touches on rich and entertaining historical and intellectual backgrounds of events and that keeps the readers on toe.
Afghanistan fell to the hands of the Taliban on August 15, 2021 where the vicious circle of events repeated itself once more. Half a Century of Struggle and Politics draws parallels and provides answers to the causes of perpetual unrest and rise and fall of political systems as well as about the misjudgments and mistakes of the international community in Afghanistan.

This book is published in Persian-Dari. I am currently seeking a publisher to translate the book to English and/or Dutch.

Lulu.com

PhD project Rumi

Before the fall of Afghanistan, I was preparing a PhD project about the famous Persian poet Rumi (born in Afghanistan). This project has been on hold since August 2021.

I published a chapter about Rumi in: The Same Gate: A Collection of Writings in the Spirit of Rumi, Autumn Hill Books in the USA in August 2018. YouTube still features a movie about an encounter with Rumi-specialists around the world in Konya, Turkey.

{
My first encounter with Ms. Ramish was in Konya, Turkey in 2013, during a State Department-sponsored project organized by the International Writing Program, The Same Gate: A Poetic Exchange (https://iwp.uiowa.edu/programs/international-conferences/the-same-gate). Ms. Ramish made a vivid impression on her fellow writers and scholars from Afghanistan, America, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sweden, Syria, and Turkey, affirming in a sophisticated fashion the living legacy of Rumi’s achievement on her own practice as a poet and writer, scholar and cultural activist. It is no exaggeration to say that her dynamic presence and contributions to the discussion insured the success of the symposium.
Christopher Merrill, Director of the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa