ENCOUNTERING CONFLICT WRITING TASKS Ref. ‘The Rugmaker of Mazar -e-Sharif’

1. WRITING TASK 1. IMAGINATIVE Title ‘In the Midst of a Catastrophe.’ 200 words 2-3 paragraphsRe-read pp14-17, describing the impact of the rocket explosion above Najaf’s house when he was 16. Chapter 2 ‘Fire in the Night.’ Note the writers’ use of sounds and sights [sensory detail] and detailed imagery.Write an imaginative piece or a recount of a catastrophic experience, which you are in the middle of.Use each of the following techniques:

use of sound and sight, vivid powerful active verbs, vivid precise detail in imagery, ‘I saw on the ground a human shape with a ragged red hole where

the chest should be...’ Use of repetition, ‘ I saw...I saw...I saw...’ metaphor and similes, ‘death was approaching like a

visitor who would take up residence in my body and dull my pain...’ Varied sentence length: short sharp sentences next to longer ones. Avoid clichés and sentimentality. Ensure it is about conflict, not a crisis. What is the difference? Use first person narrative.

AIM: To convey to the reader the experience of being in the midst of a catastrophic event, and the horror, shock and alienation this entails.

2. WRITING TASK 2. PERSUASIVE Title: ‘Unanswered questions’From Chapter 5 ‘The Room of Questions’

Study p52, where Najaf conveys his loathing of war. Underline the rhetorical questions.The striking elements of this are Najaf’s tone of voice and his repeated use of powerful rhetorical questions ‘Can you make a rug with a gun? Can you build a family with a gun?’

Write 1-2 paragraphs experimenting with questions that are simple, yet thought provoking in an argument convey the destructiveness /futility of war.

AIM: To convey a powerful statement against war using a strong personal voice and a set of at least 3 provocative rhetorical questions, concluding with a blunt powerful statement.

3. WRITING TASK THREE: IMAGINATIVE NARRATIVE/BIOGRAPHY Experimenting with tense.Title: ‘Her [or his] present was informed by her [or his] past.’The story of ‘Rugmaker’ is told in both present tense [in Australia 2001-2006] alternating with past tense [from Afghanistan 1977-2000,] allowing us to learn about Najaf’s past and present simultaneously, as well as the effect the past has on his present.

Devise a dot point outline of a person’s life in which encountering conflict has had a major impact on who they are today. Plan the piece, with a paragraph set in the past alternating with one set in the present.

Ensure you change the tense each paragraph, but not within the paragraph! Tricky! It may be a biography of a relative or friend who has fled some form of conflict, or it may be

entirely fictional. Write the first 2-3 paragraphs in full- finishing it is optional!

AIM: To write a story or biography using a change of tense from past to present to reveal the impact of the past. Use first person or third person narrative.

4. WRITING TASK FOUR. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT: PERSONAL MEMOIR/ REFELECTION.

Writing a Rite of Passage [An experience undergone in childhood/adolescence that is an important milestone in one’s life.]

Read Najaf’s recount of watching and planning to kiss the belly dancer at Sayeed Assad’s wedding [pp61-67] including the story of Kandhi Hazara.

Write your own biographical account of an important milestone in your life, and conclude with its importance to your culture and its effect on you in your sense of growing up. [1-4 paragraphs.]

AIM: To show the significance for you personally of what may be a simple event for an outsider, using descriptive detail and dialogue to take the reader there.

5. WRITING TASK 5. DESCRIPTIVE WRITING Read the first 3 paragraphs of ‘School’ Chapter 7, pp68-69. Underline the descriptions of Woomera.

What mood is being created? Read p232, the description of the fishing boat in Indonesia which will take them to Australia, the sight

of which fills him with fear. ‘What I saw made my heart sink lower than the boat. It was a slum down there...’Underline what he sees and smells.

Write one or two paragraphs describing a place to convey a mood and atmosphere. Use concrete details. ‘Many grey concrete buildings behind tall, glinting steel fences, the whole place standing completely by itself.’ Use at least two senses from sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

Add questions to create anxiety.

AIM: To write a descriptive piece using powerful, carefully chosen adjectives to convey a place of conflict, or a sense of foreboding.

6. WRITING TASK SIX. WRITING A FABLE

Read the fable of ‘The King’s Son and the Canary Bird’ recounted to Najaf by his older brother Gorg Ali. [P78-81] What was its moral? What lesson was Gorg Ali teaching his younger brother?

Google ‘Aesop’s Fables’ and read one or two more. Using the moral ‘Hope gives us strength in the most difficult of circumstances’ or, ‘The path to happiness

is found by working and rebuilding what you have lost,’ write a short fable of your own, beginning with ‘Once upon a time...,’ or ‘There once was a... who...’

You can then weave a wider story around it, of someone telling this story to another who is in need of a lesson [like Gorg teaching his younger brother.]Who are the characters? Why is a lesson needed?

AIM: To write fable that teaches a moral lesson about conflict in third person, using an exotic, foreign or distant setting as background.

7. WRITING TASK SEVEN. DIARY ENTRIES Re-read a. pp198-202, in which Najaf is captured and tortured by the Taliban b. P234- on the boat c. p243-244 Najaf, now a Permanent Resident, reflecting on the ‘impossible’ things he has

experienced in his journey that have somehow become possible d. The second paragraph on page 247; ‘Young men with hearts full of rage walk the refugee camps..’ e. pp252-3. His joy at the Citizenship ceremony mixed with feelings of remorse for other, less

fortunate Afghanis. List the reflections and observations Najaf makes in dot points. Using these, write a series of 4 diary entries Najaf would make covering each stage of his journey of

a,b,c,d, and e, above. Remember to include your detailed thoughts and reflections on war and the experiences of being a

refugee and a new Australian Citizen.

AIM: To write five diary entries conveying Najaf’s personal feelings, values and reflections and the problems encountered by those living with conflict and living in an alien land.