English as Second Language

cortical potential Text Guide Ruth doubting Thomas The Rug forger of Mazar-e-Sharif Najaf Mazari & Robert Hillman acumen Publications 2010 Copyright sharpness Publications 2009 front published in 2009 by Insight Publications Pty Ltd ABN 57 005 102 983 219 Glenhuntly Road Elsternwick VIC 3185 Australia Tel +61 3 9523 0044 Fax +61 3 9523 2044 telecommunicate emailprotected com. au www. insightpublications. com. u Copying for educational purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be copied by either educational foot for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a net income notice to Copyright Agency especial(a) (CAL) under the Act. For details of the CAL licence for educational institutions rooktact Copyright Agency throttle Level 19, 157 Liverpool Street Sydney NSW 2000 Tel +61 2 9394 7600 Fax +61 2 9394 7601 ne tmail emailprotected com. u Copying for other(a) purposes tho as permitted under the Act (for example, both fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review) no part of this book whitethorn be reproduced, stored in a recovery system, or transmitted in any form or by any pith without prior written permit. all(prenominal) inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above. subject area Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication opening Thomas, Ruth, 1980 Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillmans The rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif insight text eliminate / Ruth Thomas. 1st ed. 9781921411038 (pbk. ) Insight text guide. Bibliography.For certifyary school age. Mazari, Najaf, 1971 Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif. 325. 2109581 Printed in Australia by Hyde Park Press Insight Publications 2010 content Character social function Overview round the indite precis Character summaries iv 1 1 2 3 stage setting & context Genre, structure & language Chapter-by-cha pter summary Characters & relationships Themes, ideas & values Different interpretations Questions & states Sample answer References & reading 6 11 16 32 40 51 57 65 68 Insight Publications 2010 iv CHARACT ARACTER MAP Hakima Najafs wife, whom he marries when both are 27 sash in Pakistan before adjunctioning Najaf in Australia. other of husband and wife admires Maria Najaf and Hakimas daughter a baby when she is interpreted to Pakistan travels to Australia with Hakima to be reunited with her father. Gorg Ali Mazari Najafs eldest familiar killed by a sniper during a battle in the midst of the Russians and the mujahadeen. brothers father of Abdul Ali Mazari Becomes clearance of the family afterwards Gorg Ali is killed. respects Najaf Mazari Afghan rugmaker who ? ees con? ict in his billetland and arrives in Australia as a refugee. helps Robin Closest familiarity in Australia. helps brothers frustrated by Colin Rug corpus a close friend in Australia.Rosal Ali Mazari Younge r, irresponsible brother killed in a rocket explosion. brothers Insight Publications 2010 1 OVERVIEW About the authors Najaf Mazari was born in 1971 in the tiny village of Shar Shar in northern Afghanistan. At 12 years of age, after his family had travel to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Najaf became an apprentice rugmaker an occupation that worthy his propensity for both creativity and punishing work. Seeing through his apprenticeship and aspiring to make beautiful rugs gave the teen Najaf some shift from the horror of the incessant con? ct around him. In 2001, Najaf ? ed Afghanistan. The Taliban had active the north of the country and were carrying out racial extermination against men in Mazar-e-Sharif. Najaf was captured, badgeringd and narrowly escaped death before his family compens equal to(p) a people smuggler to strike him out of the country. Najaf reluctantly left his family and his lamb homeland, and embarked on a dangerous touch off around to Australia. He was detained in the Woomera delay centerfield plot of land his application for refugee status was processed. He then settled in Melbourne, where he opened a rug shop.In 2006, Najafs wife and daughter were given permission by the Australian governing body to join him in Australia. He was disposed(p) Australian citizenship in 2007. The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif is Najafs memoir of animation with con? ict and of enduring its far-reaching consequences. Melbourne-based ? ction writer and biographer Robert Hillman helps Najaf distinguish his written report. Hillmans collaboration with Najaf on The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif continues his literary preoccupation with the hardships and triumphs of ordinary people caught up in war and political unrest.Hillmans 2007 biography, My life-time as a double-dealer, tells the story of Zarha Ghahramani, a young Iranian cleaning lady who was imprisoned, tortured and persecuted after participating in student protests at Tehran University. Hillman, who met Zarha while he was on the job(p) as a journalist in Iran, supported her through her settlement as a refugee in Australia. His articles about refugees concord been published in a publication of modernspapers and magazines, including The New York measure and The Australian. My Life as a Traitor has been published in the get together States and the United Kingdom and was nominated for the 2008 Insight Publications 2010 2 Prime Ministers literary Award. Like The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif, Mazar-e-Sharif My Life as a Traitor contains thoughtful meditations on Zarhas culture, which ensures that the book provides something more than a contraband and shocking portrayal of war and suffering. Hillmans autobiography, The Boy in the Green suit of clothes (2003), a memoir about his avouch travel through the Middle due east as a teenager, won the 2005 National Biography Prize. The text was praised for its artfulness, evocation of restless(prenominal)ness, pander and optimism . His ? ction has to a fault been widely praised.It includes A Life of Days (1988), The Hour of Disguise (1990), writing Sparrow Hill (1996) and The Deepest Part of the Lake (2001). An experienced teacher and university lecturer, Hillman also writes educational texts for secondary-school audiences. Synopsis Najafs life begins in the low village of Shar Shar in northern Afghanistan, a fundament of hilly pastures, sunshine, snow, and bright discolor grass in spring. Najaf whole kit and caboodle as a shepherd son, responsible for protect the familys ? ock from wolves. Going to school comes second to his shepherding duties.When Najaf is eight his father dies and the family (now headed by Najafs much(prenominal)-loved eldest brother, Gorg Ali) moves north to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Gorg Ali arranges an apprenticeship for Najaf when he turns 12 and is no longer, within Afghani culture, a boy he is a young man ready to gip a trade. Najaf is ? rst apprenticed to a blacksmith, pl ainly ? nds the work tedious and deeply unsatisfying. He secretly abandons his job to begin an apprenticeship under a master rugmaker. He quick comes to love rugmaking and his passion for it offers a refuge from the war that rages around him.His work, however, does not resistance him from the reality of con? ict. War in? icts stately personal costs on young Najaf. Gorg Ali is gunned down in a battle between Russian and mujahedin soldiers in Shar Shar. Najafs younger brother, Rosal Ali, is killed when a mortar shell explodes over the family home in the middle of the night. Najaf is injured in the outrage and his apprenticeship jeopardised because the wound to his leg takes legion(predicate) months to heal. Najaf is entirely 13 when he endures these terrible experiences. Insight Publications 2010 3Although he is a civilian and remains staunchly opposed to strength throughout his life, con? ict continues to impact upon Najaf during adulthood. In 1998, the Taliban invade Mazar- e-Sharif. The Taliban massacre men and boys of Najafs Hazara clan and then capture and torture any survivors they ? nd. Now married with a baby daughter, Najaf is kidnapped and whipped with cables. However, to his and his familys disbelief, he is released. cognize he result not be so lucky a second time, Najaf escapes Afghanistan, putting his life in the pass of a people smuggler.The dangerous journey takes him through Afghanistan to Pakistan, then on to Indonesia and towards Australia on a condemnable boat. The boat lastly becomes stranded on Ashmore Reef, north of Australia. Najaf, along with other asylum seekers on board, is bring through by the Australian navy and conveyed to Woomera Detention Centre. Here, Najaf endures the ordeal of waiting, his fate resting with immigration of? cials who will decide whether he has valid condition to stay in Australia. After months of detainment, Najaf is apt(p) refugee status. He begins a life in Melbourne and, through hard work and hop e, establishes a rug-selling business.More good news comes when Najaf is granted long-lasting Residency Status, which not only means he can stay in Australia for good, but also that his wife, Hakima, and daughter, Maria, can move to Australia and join him in Melbourne. Overwhelmed by bliss and appreciation of the seemingly impossible things that have happened, Najaf thanks God for his good spate and promises to remember and honour those Afghanis who were not able to survive the countrys angry con? icts. Character summaries Najaf Mazari The central record and narrator. The narrator is in his mid 30s when he tells his story.Najaf is a young boy, teenager and young man in the story. He is less than eight years old when working as a shepherd boy in Shar Shar and about 12 when he begins his rugmaking apprenticeship. Insight Publications 2010 4 Gorg Ali Najafs much admired eldest brother. In keeping with Afghani tradition, Gorg Ali takes over as head of the family when Najafs fathe r dies. Gorg Ali is a puritanical man who believes that ? ghting is senseless and futile. He works as a tinsmith and a beekeeper. Gorg Ali is killed by a stray grass when he goes to tend the family beehives near Shar Shar. Abdul Ali Najafs second-eldest brother.When Gorg Ali dies, Abdul Ali becomes the head of the family and bears the ? nancial burden that results from the mortar attack on the familys home. Abdul Ali is more hot-headed than Gorg Ali and subjects Najaf to some(prenominal) blows about the head when he discovers Najaf has secretly quit his job as a blacksmith. Abdul Ali is a butcher. Rosal Ali Najafs younger brother. Rosal Ali is dispiritedly irresponsible, mischievous and cheeky. He often provokes Najafs anger. Najaf, as the older brother, lectures Rosal Ali. Rosal Ali is killed when the Mazaris home is destroyed in the mortar attack.Najafs arrive An important member of the Mazari family. Najafs bugger off has the ? nal say on her sons marriage plans and rules t he inside of the house in partnership with the head of the family. In turn, Najaf is respectful to his obtain and often acts protectively towards her. Najaf sees his mother (and the rest of his family) on a number of occasions after leaving Afghanistan, when he undertakes rug-buying trips to Pakistan. Hakima Najafs wife. She is the same age as Najaf they marry at the age of 27. Hakima stays in Pakistan between 2001, when Najaf ? es Afghanistan, and 2006, when she is granted permission by the Australian government to join Najaf in Australia. Insight Publications 2010 5 Maria Najaf and Hakimas daughter. Maria is just a baby when Najaf sends her and Hakima to safety in Pakistan. She is reunited with her father ? ve years later. Robin An Australian woman who becomes Najafs closest friend in Australia. She helps Najaf learn English and holds a party to celebrate his achievements in his new home. Colin A Melbourne rug dealer who helps Najaf with his business. He drives Najaf to the air port to be reunited with Hakima and Maria. Insight Publications 2010 background signal & CONTEXT Con? ict in Afghanistan Najafs homeland has a long storey of violent and bitter armed con? ict that spans centuries. This is partly due to the regions geography. As Najaf says, just look at the location of Afghanistan on a map of Asia and the Middle East, with neighbours and near-neighbours like Russia, Pakistan and Iran (p. 34). The area has commodious geographical and strategic signi? cance. Foreign force plays, from the antediluvian Macedonians through to the colonial British and commie Russians, have striven to secure territory or allies there, with little regard for the desires of the local anesthetic people.Anger towards foreign invaders is evident in Najafs observation that Afghanistan and Afghanis were supposed to ? t into the political strategies of the powerful (p. 35). Afghanis tried to ? ght off invaders, and also fought each other as mingled tribal and ethnic groups e ach attempt to stake out their own parcels of territory. In the period from 1973 to 2000, ? ve separate con? icts took place in Afghanistan, including civil wars (armed con? ict between opposing parties within one country) and worldwide wars (armed con? ct between deuce or more countries). This particularly profligate period commenced when Mohammad Daoud Khan assumed power in a military takeover. Daoud failed to sky much-needed economic and social reform and was at last overthrown in a second coup in 1978. This uprising was led by the Marxist Nur Mohammad Taraki, who implemented a bounteous and socialist agenda, replacing religious and traditionalistic laws with secular, Marxist ones. Taraki was soon ousted by Ha? zullah Amin, who was in turn replaced in withal another coup by Babrak Karmal.Najaf recalls that, by the time he was 13, Afghanistan had been ruled by four presidents, all of whom represented the commie Party (pp. 14950). Karmal was supported by the Russian governm ent, or controlled by it, as Najaf suggests (p. 11), and go on to implement Marxist reforms. While many a(prenominal) another(prenominal) people in the cities either O.K. of these changes or were ambivalent about them, many traditional and conservative Afghanis in villages and verdant areas were bitterly opposed. Opposition groups, known as mujahedin (holy Muslim warrior), began to form. The Insight Publications 2010