An Undesirable Element: An Afghan Memoir

by Sharif Fayez, Ryan Crocker (Foreword), Matthew Trevithick (Editor)

This is the incredible story of a relentless educator named Sharif Fayez, born in 1946 in Herat, Afghanistan, who bore witness to the Communist invasion of 1979, the Iranian revolution of 1979, and who authored a ground breaking PhD dissertation that forever linked the best American poetry to Afghanistan by proving that Walt Whitman had read and been inspired by Rumi. It is the story of how Sharif pursues education above all else and becomes a professor at Kabul University only to flee illegally to Iran when the Soviets invade, where he becomes caught in the violent Islamic revolution as a professor at Mashad University. Surviving the Afghan and Iranian governments’ ruthless campaign to silence academics and their students, as well as the Iran-Iraq War, he becomes a prominent voice of resistance against the Taliban and extremism in the 1990s, writing hundreds of articles, and ultimately returns to Afghanistan as a signatory to the 2001 Bonn Conference and as the Minister of Higher Education. He completely overhauls the Afghan education system, restores co-education to the country and establishes six new universities. He is almost single-handedly responsible for the incredible strides the Afghan education system has made since 2002.

***REVIEWS***

"An Undesirable Element is a fascinating tour through the tumultuous years that helped create modern Afghanistan. Fayez survived Soviet Afghanistan and revolutionary Iran, only to find himself watching from exile as his country devoured itself. Improbably, he returns after 2001 to help resurrect Afghanistan's devastated higher education system, giving an insider account of the challenges of building education in a land dominated by warlords and fundamentalism. The result is a poignant reminder of how much Afghanistan has endured, and the flicker of hope that remains despite it all."

-- Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among The Living

"A compelling read, An Undesirable Element recounts an Afghanistan many have forgotten. It serves as a rallying cry to once again imagine all that country might be. It's a tale as extraordinary as the land from which it comes."

Elliot Ackerman, author of Green On Blue

"An Undesirable Element moves fast as flames and offers a luminous account of the last half century of Afghan conflicts and redevelopment. Trevithick's oral history of Sharif Fayez's story is a trove: from a kiss on the head by the Afghan former King Zahir Shah, Fayez's life intersected with the future leaders and quiet supporters of his country--both heroic and tyrannical--from Columbia University to a Post-revolutionary University in Mashad, Iran. Fayez is a modest but robust storyteller whose eventual position as Afghanistan's first Minister of Education after the Taliban is only one of the strange twists and turns his story offers. His deft handling in the rebuilding of Afghanistan should be read by anyone interested in how one can use patience and determination to bring hope to a country reduced to rubble."

-- Adam Klein, editor, "The Gifts of The State: New Afghan Writing"

"The term visionary tends to be misapplied to those who are merely headstrong. But it is a perfectly apt description for Sharif Fayez, the most important figure in education in 21st-century Afghanistan, yet one that history may have neglected without his memoir. Such an omission would have deprived future generations of Afghans from understanding how Fayez, perhaps more than any single person, created hope for the country’s young minds at the turn of the millennium and, in so doing, altered a nation's destiny."

 —Martin Kuz, Freelance journalist

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Evin Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible story, one that must be shared widely and has the potential for great inspiration across the Middle East, as well as in changing Western perceptions of the Middle East.

I feel as incredible as the story is in terms of facts, the details could have been fleshed out further; the emotions and anecdotes could have been a bit more visceral and sensual. This is what captures imagination, and I kept on wishing the voice of Sharif Fayez would leap out at me. What is he really like, the full encompassing of his persona? There were times I was wishing he would elaborate on truly shocking moments; I had to do a double-take because his tone remained consistent, be it discussing the statistics of casualties or the abandonment of his wife to Herat during the penetration of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

"I had always hated linguistics as it didn't comprehend emotion or passion, and focused only on the rigid study of language." - Sharif Fayez

Embellish the emotions and the descriptors that put the reader in Fayez's shoes. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" - and that is what will inspire more people to see the vitality of education; the whole purpose of this book.

[Carolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best Afghan memoir I have ever read.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely short read about one man's inspirational personal story that ends up telling the story of modern Afghanistan.