Rahman Qul (1956-2007)

Rahman Qul, son of Haider Qul, was born in the Spring of 1956 in an agricultural family in the village of Arabshah Payan in the Khancharbagh district of Faryab province. He was the first child of his parents. His father and uncle were farmers and they were all poor. When he was 7 years old, he went to Khancharbagh primary school in 1961 now called the Khancharbagh Lycée. After finishing primary school he went to Abumuslim High School, about 8 km from our village Arabshah Payan. He had no money to buy a bicycle but his father had a donkey and my father used it as transport to get to school; during winter he would walk to school. He finished his middle and high school studies there in 1973. As he had told me, he was so interested in science that he wanted to have a higher education in the field of science so, in 1974, he went to Balkh University and studied at the Biology and Chemistry Faculty. He graduated from there in 1975. In 1976 soon after finishing his faculty he married my mother but fifteen days after his marriage he became a soldier and went to Kabul. He was there for two years and would tell me later that these times were very hard for him. On the one hand, my grandfather was sick and there was no money to live a normal life and on the other, the war had begun and as the situation was very volatile he did not really feel secure; besides which the Mujaheddin movement had just come into existence. Despite all this, his army assignment in Kabul was over in 1978 and he came back home. He then became a teacher at Khancharbagh primary school.

During his studies he had to earn his living so he did various jobs. As a student of Abumuslim High School he used to buy chicken and eggs from the farmers and sell them at Andkhoi bazaar. Later, along with one of his classmates, he started a shop in the village and they sold meat after school and worked as butchers. When he became a teacher, he also worked as a farmer, helped my grandfather and generally worked very hard. With his first salary he earned as a school teacher he bought his first bicycle, which is still with us in our village house.

When my sisters, Samia and Fauzia, and I were born, my father again became a soldier and had to go to Mazar-e Sharif. He stayed there from 1985 till 1987. I remember that once we, i.e. my mother, grandfather and me, went to Mazar to see my father and it was the first time I had seen Mazar-e Sharif.

When my grandfather died, the task of maintaining the whole family became Rahman Qul's responsibility. I remember that he used to work and work, he did not sleep till midnight, planting melons, watermelons and other crops.

In 1987 he became an assistant at Yulduz girls school and, in addition, taught physics to the eleventh and twelfth grade students. While working at Yulduz he joint VUSAF, when Ursula Nölle, the founder of the organisation, came to Andkhoi for the first time, but I cannot remember the exact date.

In 1997 he moved, as an assistant, to Abumuslim high school which he left in1998 to work full time with VUSAF.

He had previously joined the Save the Children office in 1994 working there as a Micro creditor assistant for ten years till 24 February, 2004. Gradually, he had became more and more committed to his activities for VUSAF and for Save the Children Fund. As consequence, he left school and devoted all his time, responsibility and interest to VUSAF. He was really happy working there, helping people, building schools and working for the sake of education. He used to tell me that we should work as hard as we could in order to have a successful future and better education. His activities took so much of his time and interest that he did not even have time to go to his friends' weddings. He always worked very hard and thought a great deal about education. I accompanied him in his work and I will never forget those numerous nights when we did not sleep at all. The goal of his life, the way he conceived it, was to have more educated people and to bring improvement to our country after the war.

In 2005 he started his co-operation with the Polish association 'Education for Peace' (at that time called 'Schools for Peace') . He administered their projects in Faryab province, such as the construction of two schools in Qaramqul near Andkhoi (Qaramqul High School and Nasswan Yusuf Merzaiee Lycée) and also its volunteer educational projects (courses of English and computers).

My father was a person of independent mind who had fought against the regimes in Afghanistan, first against the Soviet occupation and then against the Taleban. During Soviet times he had closely co-operated with a large group of teachers, engineers, doctors and other specialists who were organising a resistance movement in various parts of Afghanistan. They had fought against the Soviet Union and as a result many of his friends were killed by Russians..

He was also very opposed to the Taleban regime. I remember that, when we lived in our village of Arabshah Payan, my father had lots of thick books and he would read them every night. After the Taleban came he had to burn them all. 

However, still before the Taleban came to our village of Arabshah Payan, about thirteen years ago, he would go somewhere in secret once a week, but he told us no details. Sometimes my father's friends would come to our guest room but we were never allowed to see them though they would stay overnight and leave early in the morning before other people woke.

My father had three brothers and four sisters, all of them younger: Mrs Niaz, Mr Noor Muhammad, Mrs Shireen, Mrs Jamila, Mrs Halima, Haji Murtaza Qul and Mr. Muhammad dullah. Mrs Niaz's and Mrs Jamila's husbands became shaheed in the war, i.e. they died in combat.

Mrs Niaz's husband died in fight against Soviet troops, whereas Mrs Jamila's husband (i.e. the brother of Mardan Qul's mother) died during acivil war between Ahmad Shah Masud and Rashid Dostum's troops. Mrs Niaz has a son, who studies in Jowzjan Institute, and Mrs Jamila has two sons and a daughter. They all go to Khancharbagh High School.

Rahman Qul had one son Mardan Qul, and five daughters (Samia, Fauzia, Farzana, Negina and Ansa).

The abrupt end to my fathers life and of his work for a better Afghanistan came on Saturday 17 February, 2007, at 6:15 p.m., when he was shot dead with a gun in front of our house the enemies of education, who did not want my father to achieve to his goal of an educated and prosperous Afghanistan

Rahman Qul, my father, was not a typical father for me and my sisters. He was both our real friend and our teacher particularly during those hard times when we could not go to school in the village .We miss him very much.

Mardan Qul [Rahman's son] October, 2007