Rangin dadfar spanta biography of donald
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Afghanistan’s resurgent publishing industry battles piracy
Afghanistan’s position on the fault lines of east and west, coupled with the diverse mix of cultures, religions, histories and political ideologies that have penetrated this central Asian country, has created a nation with a rather unique relationship to literature.
An ancient land with a rich history of storytelling, poetry and folklore, the 1978 communist uprising was hugely inspired by Soviet literature translated into Afghanistan’s official languages of Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian or Farsi). When the Taliban violently rose to power in the late 1990s, they destroyed libraries across Afghanistan, including the National Library. At the same time, however, religious schools flourished, as did Islamic literature, mostly in Arabic. Today, the country’s western-backed government in Kabul is rigorously pursing capitalism, and English-language, western literature is in high demand as a result.
Despite having one of the lowest literacy rates in the world (just 31 per cent according to UNESCO), Afghanistan’s publishing industry is booming. According to a recent New York Times article on the subject, during the Taliban’s rule there were only two book publishers in the whole country. Today, there are 22 in the capita
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Speech of Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta
I am glad to have been given the opportunity to speak at the Second Vienna Conference/Vienna Meeting on Afghanistan.
It is a great pleasure that, once more, I get to meet my dear friends and fellow countrymen on this fortuitous occasion. I hope we can have a result-oriented open dialogue on solutions to the political, security, cultural and economic catastrophe currently reigning over our homeland.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Fellow Afghans,
I would like to express my gratitude to the Kreisky Forum, Ambassador Patrick, and all our Austrian hosts, Mr. Safa and his esteemed family, my dear fellow countrymen and all other contributors, thanks to whose efforts this meeting has been arranged.
It has been twenty months since the surrender of power to the Taliban and their global sympathisers. Over the course of those twenty months, our country has fallen a hundred years behind the progressing caravan of human civilisation. With the passing of every single day that Afghan girls and women are deprived of receiving an education and barred from their occupations, society is further emptied of a spirit of tolerance, and political and administrative apparatuses are further subordinated to an ever-expanding primitive ideology and mindset. Afgh
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