West of Kabul, East of San Francisco

About the Book

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.

About the Author

Dr. Entezar received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in applied linguistics, his MA from Columbia University Teachers College in teaching English as a foreign language and his BA from Kabul University in English. He has taught at Kabul University; Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the University of Nebraska at Omaha; Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Fayetteville Community College in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He wrote the first Dari book, Farsi (Afghan Persian) for the US Peace Corps in 1964. Subsequently, he wrote Intermediate Dari (1965) and Dari (1969). Professor Entezar has written numerous articles on the nature of language, bilingualism, and language teaching methodology. He is the author of Afghanistan 101: Understanding Afghan Culture (2008) and Dari Grammar and Phrase Book (2010).