Asne Seierstad (2003) made me think about the actions of a family leader and
the notion of heroism. I first looked to my father, a Merchant Marine captain,
who piloted thousand footer ships around the Great Lakes hauling iron ore
to supply the booming steel industry. My father heroically braved the November
storms that so often took the lives of Great Lakes sailors in order to meet
company schedules and demands. He endured days and weeks away from his family
to ensure that Americans had the opportunity to purchase an automobile made
with American steel. In a recent phone call, I asked my father why he chose
to spend thirty seven years battling the Great Lakes. He replied, “Money”.
For me, my father’s response as well as Seierstad’s (2003) account
of Khan’s life challenged the actions of Sultan Khan as a hero who
risked his life to save books and to preserve Afghan culture. What began
as a novel about an unusual Afghan became the story of a most common Afghan,
resulting in an extreme dislike for the bookseller, who seemed to be driven
by fundamentalist beliefs and greed. I do not want to dislike him because
I feel that the story led me to focus on the oppression of Afghan women rather
than the positive contributions of Khan. The contradictions I found in Seierstad’s
account left me curious about the bookseller of Kabul. In my pursuit for
information about the real bookseller of Kabul some of the contradictions
that I found were explained and I began to question Seierstad’s descriptions
and motives rather than those of her subject.
The book presented a view that the life of Shah Mohammed Rais, alias
Sultan Khan, was a contradiction. Here was a man proclaiming to be
liberal and an advocate
of literacy, yet his sons were removed from school to work in his bookshops and
the women in his family were treated like slaves. It puzzled me that Rais’ sons,
especially the eldest, Mansur, spoke English well enough to be Seierstad’s
translator. Mansur must have had schooling despite Seierstad’s claim that
Rais put his sons to work in the bookshops rather than school. Rais denies this
fact in subsequent news interviews claiming that during Seierstad’s stay,
the schools had not yet reopened (Lamb, 2004). When Lamb (2004) interviewed Seierstad
she conceded that “I should have put more context” (p.2). Rais’ interest
in printing textbooks for schools focused on the business aspect of this venture.
I expected more philosophical comments from Rais about his beliefs on this matter
but read nothing more than a financial report about the progress. The lack of
information outlining Rais’ beliefs about school and textbooks seemed an
important omission in this book.
Seierstad was clear about the bookseller’s financial gains. Shah Mohammed
Rais, alias Sultan Khan, was a businessman. More than that, he was a rich businessman.
Printing and selling books made him a very wealthy man. I felt that in the book,
Seierstad dwelled on Rais’ business dealings in a way that cast him as
greedy man. Like my father, Rais was motivated by money. He had a large family
to support and a niche to fill in the community. He was also a book collector,
but it was only briefly mentioned that the bookseller held a dream to replenish
the local public library with his collection of hidden books to benefit the Afghan
people. Seierstad focused on the irony that a bookseller existed in a country
where three quarters of the population is illiterate (Seierstad, 2003). He was
shrewd in his business negotiations, and Seierstad led the reader to believe
that achieving success at the expense of others was a means by which Rais added
to his wealth. Her description of his trips to the marketplace to purchase priceless
volumes from unknowing merchants were recounted in the spirit of his favorite
Ferdusi quote: “To succeed you must sometimes be a wolf…” (2003,
p. 22). Seierstad may have embraced this quote as well. After all, she wrote
a bestselling novel and has gained much celebrity and wealth, while seemingly
portraying to write about the life of Rais, the bookseller. The fact that Seierstad
included a “Reading Group Guide” in the latest edition ensured that
the ever popular book club would choose her novel as a ‘must read’.
I have to consider if she took advantage of Rais to find a platform for views
on women and oppression.
It wasn’t surprising that Asne Seierstad wrote a novel about the oppression
of woman. Her mother was an author who focused on feminist issues and her father
was a leftist politician. This was Seierstad’s culture and along with her
Western upbringing, she would undoubtedly write from a Western point of view.
Myhre (2004) acknowledged that anthropologists agree Seierstad “confirms
Western preconceptions about the oppression of women in Islam, rather than successfully
conveying the social and cultural context of the Khan family’s life” (p.20).
It seems that Seierstad took advantage of not only Rais’ family, but also
the world events. What better time than post 9/11 to publish a book on Afghanistan
and the oppression of people? Certainly, as a well-traveled journalism she would
understand the implications of her novel. Rais was reportedly quite upset with
the novel and filed a lawsuit against Seierstad (Lamb, 2004). He claimed that
not only did the book cite numerous inaccuracies but it also failed to sufficiently
hide his identity and that of his family. Online responses to an article about
the book in the Pak Tribune (2003) revealed fears that Seierstad’s work
will “only add to the misunderstandings about Islam and Muslim cultures” (p.4).
There is no doubt that Seierstad spurred conversations about the Afghan
culture all over the world. However, the contradictions in the book
and her agenda for
writing about the oppression of Afghan women should be considered. The animosity
that has ensued between Seierstad and Rais over the interpretation of events
shows that the Afghan culture is one of great complexity and needs to be considered
in context. What I learned about the Afghan culture from Seierstad’s book
is that to gain insight about the culture requires exploration of other sources
and that we need to be careful about applying the ‘Western’ view
to ‘Non-Western’ cultures. To me, Seierstad is a questionable hero
and readers must remember not to judge a bookseller by his cover.
References
Bookseller of Kabul v. journalist of Oslo. (October 31, 2003). Pak Tribune.
Retrieved on November 5, 2005 from http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=43402
Lamb, C. interviews Shah Mohammed, the bookseller of Kabul. (October
10, 2004). The Sunday Times. Retrieved on November 5, 2005 from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1302144_1,00.html
Myhre, K.C., (2004). The bookseller of Kabul and the anthropologists
of Norway. Anthropology Today. 20(3), 19-22.
Seierstad, A. (2003). The Bookseller of Kabul. (I. Christophersen,
Trans). New York: Back Bay Books. (Original work published in 2002)
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