In This Life: In This World

Many of us think of life as a journey. But what if you never reached home on that journey? What if you didn’t really have a home and the journey was taking you to a place you didn’t know if you would even be welcomed to?

That is the story of Michael Winterbottom’s In This World, a film about two Afghani refugees who undertake the daunting journey to what is supposed to be a better life in London. Jamal was born into a refugee camp on the Afghan border of the NWFP but when we are introduced to the adolescent he is orphaned and working as a brickmaker. His uncle agrees to send him along with his cousin Enayatullah to London since Jamal speaks English and can help his cousin face the challenges that lay ahead.

The journey that ensues is the dark world of human trafficking. It involves very little human kindness: a Kurdish family that welcomes them into their home before they travel over the snowy mountain peaks into Turkey; and a few moments of sharing hopes with a young Irani family that is escaping to a better life in Denmark. Rather, as so often is the case, it is a heart wrenching journey that involves financial exploitation, getting caught by the police, horrendous traveling and living conditions, forced labor, and even death for the most unfortunate human cargo.

Jamal’s journey takes him from a life with little hope in the NWFP to a lonely hard life in Europe, selling trinkets on the street, stealing a purse, and stowing away under a tractor trailer in France headed for the UK. Once he arrives in London, the film shifts back to where the journey began when Jamal calls his uncle to tell him he is in London but that Enayatullah is no longer in this world. Jamal is still in this world — but what kind of world is it for him and all the displaced persons like him? Isn’t there more we can do to help people to work legally (and safely) in other countries so they can support families back home and try to make a better life for themselves?

As some of you know I used to be married to an Afghani. We are still very close and I have the most respect for his own journey, which included walking out of Afghanistan from Gardez on foot as a young adolescent; over the mined mountains into a refuge camp in the NWFP of Pakistan; becoming a street vendor at the age of 12 tryng to help support a family of 3 boys left at home, his mother and 5 sisters; teaching himself the trade of jewelry making; paying off a corrupt Pakistani to get him a visa to come and work in Doha as a jeweler, only to discover he was put to work doing construction without any shelter, proper clothes, equipment or even food; meeting a corrupt Pakistani imam who agreed to get him new sponsorship that would allow him to open his own jewelry shop and then stole all his money and even the customers jewelry before locking him out of the shop.

That is when I came into the picture. I was one of those customers and I took the imam to the police on behalf of my friend (who later became my husband) and got his tools, gemstones, jewelry and customer’s property back; as well as went to his sponsor to make sure that he would be allowed to open a new shop and work on his own. God bless his sponsor, a very nice Qatari gentleman, who has never asked for anything from my ex-husband and helped him with visas, licensing and anything else he needs.

My Afghani ex-husband has made quite a journey, too. While married we traveled to Thailand where he made important business contacts and visited London where he met up with some Afghani friends who had made Jamal’s journey in real life. He has since made friends from all over the world as people make their way through Doha, and has accepted invitations to visit them in their homes — all on his Afghani passport that was among the first to be issued to someone here in Doha after the fall of the Taliban.

Yesterday I was in his shop, admiring photos of his travels when I came across a few that were from his time in Gardez and Peshawar. He was such a handsome young boy but had such a serious expression that revealed the weight of his burdens. I thought to myself as I looked from the sorrowful eyes of that little boy to the man with the dancing eyes standing before me: “How far he has come in this world, maash’Allah!”

Who Will Educate The Children?

Last night I was screening a number of films I am considering using in my upcoming class about filmmaking in the “non-Western” world. All of them dealt with the theme of education — in either Iran or Afghanistan. And each film showed me how far behind this part of the Muslim world — and MOST of the Muslim world — in in terms of development and the educational qualities required to become a knowledge or technology based society. In fact, these countries are not even able to sustain their own people through an agriculturally based society.

 

The films I watched were Samira Makhmalbaf’s The Apple (which she directed at the age of 17!) which is based on the true story of an Irani family in which the blind mother and father locked their twin daughters in their house from the ages of 2-13, never teaching them how to bathe themselves, talk or even walk properly. Their imprisonment stunted their development to the point of retardation until the neighbors called social services in Tehran. The girls eventually were adopted and are now progressing developmentally and intellectually.

After that I watched The Beauty Academy of Kabul, which is a documentary about a group of Americans (including some who fled Afghanistan in the 70s) who went to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban to offer a training program for female entrepreneurs in the beauty industry. It’s an interesting film, documenting the first class of women to attend and graduate, giving a nice historical overview of Afghanistan since the 1970s. The film is a testimony to the strength of the female spirit.

My favorite of the films I watched last night was Afghan Alphabet by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a rather short documentary (45 minutes) about the impact of the Taliban mentality on several generations of Afghanis (in this case, illegally living in Iran close to the border). With nothing but his digital camera Makhmalbaf shows us that the basis of an engrossing film is the story. This one is fascinating and challenges the reliance on memorization in Muslim societies that subverts the ability to be able to think critically. Children don’t know how to articulate who/what God is and a little girl – probably no older than 10 – refuses to uncover her face to take part in a school lesson because she says it is a great sin. She narrates a story by Mullah Omar about how the Prophet (saw) had a large box he locked his wife in and she never went out; but when he wanted to he could open the box and smell her before locking her away again.

 

When this precious child is sent from the classroom because she will not unveil and participate in the lesson (which is about how to spell “water” and wash one’s face), her empathetic friend leaves the classroom and tries to talk her into coming back inside and following the teacher’s instructions. She tries to ease her mind by telling her that she can repent to God for showing her face and pray 10 rakats, but her friend will not hear of it. Eventually though, after much whispering and turning their backs to the camera, the friend (smaller and probably younger) shows her how to wash her face and takes her back into the classroom. The final shot is memorable:

Each of these films raise profound questions about Islam and education in the 21st Century.

 

 

Ambush On "The Road To Kabul"

Seems the entire series has been yanked now. Nothing like giving all the grease to the squeaky wheel….

Thanks Haitham for following up on this one.

Dateline: Afghanistan

Starting today I will post the correspondance from my friend Mark whose brother is working on the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. We hear so much of the nagative reporting from there these days, but rarely have the chance to get that first-hand glimpse of what daily life is like. And after all, isn’t the day to day business of survival what we all are engaged in? Watch for future installments. And a special merci to Mark et son frere for giving us this chance to look over your shoulders.

“My brother is supplying free water to aprox 200 to 250 people. This is not what he is there for. But since he HAS the water and the people don’t well that says it all. The local UN goons for some reason are not happy with him for giving water to these people. One of the UN nutters quipped to my brother “what are you going to do when your well runs dry” My brother fired back.. “Drill another well..” Don’t kid yourself HE will if needed.

“Prior to my brothers arrival a local goon ran off with 20 of his firm’s autos and refused to give them back. In typical fashion my brother rounded up 5 HumV’s with 5 US MARINES in each one and went and reclaimed the autos. You might say he made the mini warlord/wannabe goon “an offer he couldn’t refuse”. He then hired away all of his mini goons — “Guards” who hadn’t been paid in over 2 months. The autos in effect, in time will be turned over to Afghanistan for the use in the clinics and schools being built. He later returned to the same goon and took back several computers he had also stolen.

“My brother informs me a family of 4 can be fed (and fed WELL) for lessthan $1.00 us PER DAY.

“All in all he feels pretty safe there though he does have his own goons watching his back.

“More soon..”

It’s A Rocky "Road To Kabul"

The TV soap opera, that is. “The Road To Kabul” is a joint Qatari-Jordanian serial about an Afghan girl who falls in love with a Palestinian boy while studying in the UK, only to return home to the indignities and misogynist oppression of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Apparently, the producers, directors, writers, and actors must be doing something right because they warranted death threats from the latest addition to the wacko-squad: the Mujahedin Brigades of Iraq and Syria.

“We swear to the great God that if we see in the series anything other than the honourable reality of the Taliban … we will assault all those who participated in this sullied malice.

“We will strike, God willing, the centres of satellite stations, their correspondents … and we swear that nobody will slip from our hands - if not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then in a month, or a year.”

QTV, the co-producer of the series, has decided not to broadcast it bacause “its quality and standard could not be verified” according to a station spokesman. Ironically, the Saudis love it, as it is available via satellite on MBC and ART. But in typical fashion — ie., clueless of the Western mentality and clinging to conspiracy theories –some Saudis think that the serial isn’t being broadcast because of American pressure on QTV. What they don’t get is that this is EXACTLY the image of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that the US wants everyone to see, as it becomes one reason for justifying the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In fact, when you see all the images and stories coming out of Afghanistan now, it makes any human wonder how the world could have all closed its eyes for so long to the massive human tragedy caused by the Taliban. It’s about time we open our eyes.

Check these out:

The Peninsula

Independent

Al Bawaba

Arab News