Bashir Sakhawarz

In 1979 for the first time the government of Afghanistan supported by the Soviet Union, decided to create a professional Writers Association.  On the surface such a move seemed to be the answer to the prayers of writers who for many years due to financial difficulty or strict rules of censorship, could not publish their work.   They were both right and wrong. They were right to argue that the government was sincerely encouraging writings, something discouraged in the past, and they were wrong to think that any subject would be published.

There is no doubt that mild censorship is required to monitor media and such phenomena exists even in democratic countries such as United Kingdom, France and Germany.  The nature of this being primarily to safeguard the interest of the nation.  However, such action does not safeguard the government but is mainly used to protect against dilution of the moral values of the nation.

In Afghanistan of pre 1997, it was rare to see books written by the Afghan writers decorating libraries and bookshops.  However, there were some historical books commissioned by King Mohammad Zahir Shah and his father Nader Shah, written in praise of the royal family.   The book of Nader Afghan written by Kushkaki and commissioned by Nader Shah, is nothing but conceive of truth praising Nader as conqueror of the third Afghan British war and the rightful claim to the thrown of the Afghan kingdom. Other books published during Zahir Shah were less direct as he could not claim credit of independence since fortunately Afghanistan was already independent.  He did not play any significant role in the modernisation of Afghanistan or for that matter any miraculous economical reforms.   Thus he was satisfied for writers to continue to praise the rulers of Muhammad Zaies, the God chosen figureheads to rule Afghanistan. After all, he was from the same family and could benefit from praising of his ancestors.

The creation of the Afghan Writers Association came at the time that Afghan writers were no longer naïve, unlike their predecessors who restricted their curiosity to study classical writers such as Hafiz, Baidel, Sadi and Sanai.   1979 was the year that the king of Iran was overthrown, the Russians were in power in Afghanistan and unofficially in that era second-hand bookstores were full of books from Iran all the way to Chile. Yes even Pablo Neruda was known in the Afghan circles of elites along with other political and non-political writers from our neighbouring country, Iran.   Most of the books were translated in Persian in Iran and that made it easier for the Afghans to become aware of international writers and their works.  This inflow quenched the thirst of many young writers.  In the process of getting away from Baidel Khaani in Khaneqah and Hafiz in the mosques, the youth were taking note of western and eastern philosophers, poets and writers. By 1997 Afghans were aware of Existentialism of Sartre from France and revolution in modern poetry of Nima in Iran.

However in reality the establishment of the Writers Association of Afghanistan was to voice the support for the puppet government.  The consequences being that:

1. The writers were encouraged to propagate the success of the Soviet Union Regime.

2. The writers were encouraged to write on the success of the legitimate government and regime of the time and, to project it as the Afghanistan prosperity.

3. Writings critical of the regime were never published.

4. The Writers Association of Afghanistan was used as a propaganda machine for the regime of the time.

5. The AWA lacked the support of the committed writers who understood the underlying theme of the institution and never became member of AWA.

6. For the safety of writers there was no choice but to produce poetry.  Other books, which addressed the social, political and historical issues were more complicated and the writers knew that their work would not be published and thus refrained from it.

7. Even poetry was designed to praise the government. Poets who did not follow suit were prosecuted and imprisoned or, simply killed. Haider Lahib and Daud Sarmad are martyr poets of those times.

8. Only a small number of true poetry books were finally published by AWA, when writers were using the art of symbolism to make sure that their lives were not in danger. However, such type of poetry was difficult for the common people to understand

In addition to using the AWA as an institution for the regime propaganda, the AWA also became a centre for monitoring the writers.   Naïve writers, encouraged to submit their work to the AWA, saw themselves earmarked as the enemy of the government if their work was interpreted to imply injustice of the regime.

In 1980, I myself, Bashir Sakhawarz, was invited by AWA for a collection of my poetry to be published. I agreed, with simplicity of heart, thinking that I would submit my poems skilfully in symbolic language.   I recall being specifically upset by the death of Haider Lahib one of the most talented poets of Afghanistan who was allegedly killed by the regime.  In my naivety I thought to write about this horrific and cowardly act using metaphors.  Soon after submitting my work I was asked to come to AWA. The meeting was organised with the director of AWA himself and it was there that I was confronted by an angry man shoving one of my poem’s in front of me and demanding “what is this”? I looked at the poem and started reading aloud:

I heard that the mouth of garden opened up and said:

‘When other flowers are gone

the pumpkin is the only flower in the garden”

We had a wrong expectation from the soil

And flowers such as roses

Never registered to have an identity here.’

The man was furious because the poem was implying the Soviet Union Regime conditional support of survival.   Incidentally the pumpkin flower is the ugliest in our culture and no match to the beauty of roses. But the roses were all gone. Being a poet I explained another interpretation in romantic terms and stated that I did not have any interest in politics. That excuse bought me some time to get out of AWA and prepare myself for exile.  Needless to say my poetry book was never published.

It was evident that the AWA was also used as a centre for spying. Those people who were member of the communist regime and also member of the AWA had the responsibility to check on the activity of independent writers. The independent writers were encouraged to submit their work but the main reason was to make sure that they were monitored.

The AWA centre remained with the puppet government.  There were selected publications translated from Russian into the local languages and the main topic of these books continued to be the Soviet Union achievement since revolution of 1917. Publication of western writers work was banned and, those who quoted western writers in their work were suspected of treason.

It would be unfair to say that the centre did not approve token publications of some short stories and poetry but all in all, there was no backing off of the regime.   The writers frequently pre-dated their work to the era before the communism in order to save face.

The centre also had a role to send Afghan writers to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries for cultural exchanges and thereby influence the Afghan Writers with writings of the communist block countries.   This continued until the puppet regime was toppled by yet another even darker reactionary force of the Mujahideens.  

Another activity of the AWA was to organise special events commemorating the achievements of the Soviet Union Revolution.   A lavish party of abundant food, Russian vodka, music and dance and, also occasional recitation of poems admiring the Soviet Union in an atmosphere of tobacco, alcohol, music, dance and laughter. Unfortunately even the trumpet blower, the poet, did not know what he was reciting.

May 2003