Stories of Remarkable Lives

"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history."

--Carter G. Woodson--

An excerpt from a My Story My Gift Biography

The radio news announcer was wondering how the United States would know when its military objectives had been reached in Afghanistan. "It's expected there will be some degree of military conflict for the foreseeable future after the U. S. withdraws," the announcer said.

There probably weren't many other people at the coffee shop who found humor in that statement. My native country had been beset by war, invasion and internal conflict since before the time of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC. Armies from great nations and others armed with little more than grand ambitions or bad intentions have found ample reasons to shed blood on the dry, mountainous earth of my homeland.

By 1000 AD the Scythians, White Huns, Arabs, Persians and the Turkic Ghaznavids had all come and conquered. Eleven hundred years later the American led coalition was merely the latest foreign invader to try to impose its will on Afghanistan. Predicting "some degree of military conflict...for the foreseeable future" was about as difficult as predicting sun in the desert. While there's nothing funny about war, the irony of that statement made me smile.

Some Afghans use wars and internal conflicts to describe major events in their lives instead of referring to a particular year or span of years. For example, my grandpa was born around the time of the second Anglo-Afghan War and my dad was born shortly before Prince Nadir Khan defeated Bacha-i-Saqao and became king.

I was born in Kabul on October 14, 1979, exactly 2 ½ months before 700 Soviet troops disguised as Afghan soldiers occupied key buildings in the capital city. They led the way for a full-scale Soviet military occupation that lasted 10 years.

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Writing and filming MSMG biographies takes a fair amount of time to prepare and create. If you choose to give a biography as a gift, a certificate mounted in a high quality folder will be sent to you within 48 hours. You can wrap it and give it to your loved one on a special day.

We'll contact you for instructions on how and when to contact your loved one and begin the process of gathering information that will become his or her My Story My Gift Biography.