The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif

by Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman

“I did not know that I could feel this much sorrow without a body to bury… We who are watched and guarded, we who are questioned, probed, doubted – we are all illegals”…

Beautifully captured and penned by award-winning biographer Robert Hillman, this is a compelling story of an exceptional yet ‘ordinary’ man whose generous spirit, natural leadership and desire for peace, transcends enormous danger and heartbreak.

Against a background of civil war and politics in Afghanistan, this extraordinary story follows the life of a twelve year old Hazara shepherd boy who forsakes his family wishes and becomes an apprentice rug maker. War is always in the background and the guns are never quiet. In 2001, Najaf is captured and tortured by the Taliban and he is forced to flee Afghanistan, putting his life into the hands of a traditional enemy, a Pashtun, to escape.

Surviving ten checkpoints, finally he is delivered safely into Pakistan. Aboard a small boat that is falling to pieces and which sinks alarmingly with the burden of its cargo, Najaf and 96 men, women and children take their chances to reach Australia.

Najaf Mazari’s compelling and inspiring story begins in Woomera Detention Centre in the remote Australian desert. The Rug-maker of Mazar-e-Sharif is an amazing story of courage, hope and determination.

“After a few months back in the factory, I was weaving simple quality rugs without assistance…but then come the more difficult tasks – learning to repair rugs, to stretch rugs, to match colours, make colours, create a design that does justice to fine yarns. ..It was during my initiation into the deeper mysteries of my craft that I began to understand how a world can exist within a single room. For when my concentration was at its greatest, it felt that the world lived in the yarns, in the colours and in the skills of rugmaking.

Melbourne-based writer Robert Hillman won the National Biography Award in 2005 for his autobiography The Boy in a Green Suit. His most recent biography, My Life as a Traitor, written with Zarha Gahhramani, has been sold in the US, Europe and the UK. Hillman says although he worked with Najaf for over nine months to write the book, Najaf “cried and cried when he finished reading the final story.”

Najaf Mazari was born in 1971 in a small village near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Najaf fled Afghanistan in 2001 and ended up in Woomera Detention Centre. After his release, he settled in Melbourne where he now owns a rug shop, selling traditional Afghan rugs. His wife and daughter were finally given permission by the Australian government to join him in 2006 after a six year separation. In April 2007 he became an Australian citizen.

He says that he continually wonders why he has been so lucky; ‘chosen to prosper’. He says: ‘Why did my troubles catch the eye of God? It is a puzzle that can never be answered”.

“Australia.” He says, “is a land that I love in the way that a man loves the friend who saved his life”.