West of Kabul, East of San Francisco

West of Kabul, East of San Francisco is the highlights of my life story. Keeping a diary is not common in developing countries such as Afghanistan, and this makes autobiographies less common in these countries. The existing biographies and autobiographies in the Islamic countries are mostly those about the Prophet Mohammad and other important religious figures or monarchs. These biographies, however, are full of praise.

This historic precedent has also had its effect on autobiographies written by Western-educated Afghans. They too are full of praise and criticisms of rivals, rarely talking about their own problems and weaknesses. In other words, they are mostly self-centered and egotistical in nature. In West of Kabul, East of San Francisco, I have tried to be as objective as possible in avoiding such pitfalls. I describe events and relationships as realistically as possible. But I realize that no one can entirely escape the influence of their mother culture.