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    Confessions of a Mullah Warrior
    Confessions of a Mullah Warrior
    Confessions of a Mullah Warrior
    Ebook385 pages6 hours

    Confessions of a Mullah Warrior

    By Masood Farivar

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “If you liked The Kite Runner, you must read this riveting, firsthand account by one of the real Afghan mujahideen . . . An extraordinary tale.” —Leslie Cockburn
     
    Masood Farivar was ten years old when his childhood in peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan was shattered by the Soviet invasion of 1979. Although he was born into a long line of religious and political leaders who had shaped his nation’s history for centuries, Farivar fled to Pakistan with his family and came of age in a madrassa for refugees. At eighteen, he defied his parents and returned home to join the jihad, fighting beside not only the Afghan mujahideen but also Arab and Pakistani volunteers. When the Soviets withdrew, Farivar moved to America and attended the prestigious Lawrenceville School and Harvard, and ultimately became a journalist in New York.
     
    Farivar draws on his unique experience as a native Afghan, a former mujahideen fighter, and a longtime US resident to provide unprecedented insight into the ongoing collision between Islam and the West. This is a visceral, clear-eyed, and illuminating memoir from an indispensable new voice on the world stage.
     
    “Like the war poets who told you what it was really like to be in the trenches, Farivar survived to tell us about life on the front lines of the clash of civilizations—and it rings with more truth than any other account of these famous events I’ve ever read. In these troubled times, this is a book that is brave, honest, humane, and full of love.” —Aidan Hartley, author of The Zanzibar Chest
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 16, 2010
    ISBN9781555848231
    Author

    Masood Farivar

    Born in 1969 in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, Masood Farivar fought in the anti-Soviet resistance in the late 1980s before attending Harvard University, from which he received a degree in history and politics. His journalism has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, and Soldier of Fortune. He lives in Afghanistan.

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    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      An inspiring story of faith and courage. This memoir combines an excess of religious observance with an associated but temporary jihadist commitment; and an ambition for an achievable middle-class life in a Western nation with flushing toilets vs. the love for the primitive countryside of one's ancestors. It highlights the retention of ancient customs of the people; the corruption and brutality of factional tribal leaders; the high death toll resulting from interventions by the Soviet and NATO; the short-term politico-military strategies of the USA; and the helplessness of the people. The reader is left with the tragic picture of powerful people each seeking a slice of the terrain of Afghanistan.
    • 3/5
      CONFESSIONS OF A MULLAH WARRIOR is a memoir, written by an Agfhani whose family ties and personal experience give him an unusually comprehensive view of Afghanistan’s recent history.

      Farivan was born to a family of elites, provincial governors and clerics. Through his grandfather Farivan gained an intimate understanding of the native, Hanafi Sunni religious culture, while in his immediate family his father rebelled against his conservative upbringing and entered the secular, Westernized middle class.

      After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Farivan flees with his family across the border to Pakistan. There, Farivan enrolls in a madrasa sponsored by wealthy Saudi Arabians who spread fundamentalist Wahabi Islam along with reading, writing, and arithmetic. The school works its magic, and soon Farivan spends hours of every day reading the Koran, instructing his family members to carefully wash their nostrils three times before performing their daily prayers, and passionately convinced that women are inferior to men. Farivan’s family are worried by his extremism, and ultimately they wean him away from his school and into a more temperate philosophy.

      Soon, Farivan returns to Afghanistan as a soldier. From the caves in the mountains of Tora Bora, he fights to repel the Soviet occupation. Farivan is passionately devoted to the future of Afghanistan, and wants to secure its independence, but he does not like to see Afghanistan made into a battleground for a much larger conflicts. The Americans are waging a war against communism, not in favor of Afghani independence, while the Arabs see the war in Afghanistan as the first step in a larger jihad – as would become apparent on September 11.

      As a soldier, Farivan comes into contact with the foreign journalists covering the conflict. With the advice and support of a few friends he makes among the visitors, Farivan decides to apply to Harvard. He’s not accepted outright – instead, the Harvard admissions office offers Farivan placement at a preparatory school in New Jersey and tells him that if he does well, they’ll look favorably on a re-application a year later. Farivan accepts, and a year later he’s a student at Harvard.

      Farivan describes the culture shock he experiences upon his arrival to the United States, focusing on the religious conflicts that emerge. He keeps his long beard, even though it singles him out as a foreigner in the US. But he also starts drinking alcohol and this makes him wonder if he deserves to wear the full beard of a devout Muslim man. The segment of the book describing Farivan’s stint at Harvard is very short, however. He talks about joining a men’s club, and about arguing with friends from a Christian outreach group. He only discusses academics briefly, explaining why he chose to study Islamic history.

      After graduation, Farivan struggles a bit. He wants to find a way back to Afghanistan, but the political situation is bad. After 9/11, Farivan doesn’t want to return to a war-torn country. He delays for years, doing good work in the US as a journalist, but at the end of the memoir he is proud to say that he is finally moving back to his homeland.

      Masood Farivan has had a fascinating life, but he uses his memoir as a pedagogic opportunity. He aims to instruct, using each incident in his personal history as the starting point for a lecture about politics, history, or religion. He writes with a curiously unemotional voice – this has the effect of making everything he says sound reasonable (things like Afghan men going to Indian movies and spitting on the floor every time a Hindu religious monument appears on the screen sound perfectly normal when he describes them), but not very engaging. Traumatic events, like learning about the brutal assassination of a cousin, have little impact; Farivan’s expressions of grief are wooden, eclipsed by his lengthy description of the condolence letter that he writes to his cousin’s parents, and which Koranic quotations he chose to include.

      I found that Farivan’s detached, pedantic voice made CONFESSIONS OF A MULLAH WARRIOR hard to enjoy. Farivan is more interested in teaching a course in modern Afghan history than in baring his soul, and I never had a sense of intimacy or connection with the author. Farivan has led a fascinating, exceptional life but his memoir is simply not a compelling read.

    Book preview

    Confessions of a Mullah Warrior - Masood Farivar

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