Rasul Amin ( ps, رسول امين ; 10 May 1939 – 31 October 2009) was an Afghan politician,
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
, academic, writer, and former education minister, who resettled in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
, Australia, in the 2000s.
Early life and academic life
Rasul Amin was born on 10 May 1939 in a cultural diverse area, Wata Pur District of eastern Kunar Province. Rasul Amin was son of a khan of the Amin tribe. His mother, Hera Amin was also from Watapore District from Nanikhel tribe). He was a great nephew of Ghazi Mir Zaman Khan. He was raised as an orphan, because his mother died when he was 5 years old. His father, Amin Khan participated in the uprising with the leading attorney general, Ghazi Mir Zaman Khan in 1947. Due to the bad government he was forced to depart with Ghazi Mir Zaman Khan to Herat and Mazar-e Sharif. Rasul completed his primary education in Kunar.
In 1955, he went to
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, where he wanted to desire further more studies and gather his
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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and
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' Islamia College Peshawar, Pakistan. He was elected as a General-Secretary of the Khyber Union, (students’ union), in 1962, an unprecedented honour for an Afghan student. In 1963, he was voted the best debater at college. He received a BA in 1964 and a double master's degree in Sociology, English and Political Science in 1966.
Soviet resistance
From 1980 to 1985 he worked with the National Islamic Front (Afghanistan), National Islamic Front of Pir Sayed Ahmad Gillani in Peshawar. 1990s, he worked with the Rome Group that was established by the former King, Muhammad Zaher Shah. He initially worked with the Afghan intellectual Professor Seyyed Bahauddin Majrooh at the Afghanistan Information Centre (AIC). The AIC became a mouthpiece of liberal Afghan intellectuals linked to the resistance but drew the wrath of the fundamentalist factions. Prof. Majrooh was assassinated in Peshawar in 1988 after the AIC had published the results of a poll among Afghan refugees that showed that the former King was the most popular Afghan politician, way ahead of the mujahedin leaders. On 21 March 1985, Rasul established the Organization Writers Union of Free Afghanistan, which, as the AIC, was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany), USIS, the Asia Foundation (USA), and the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Denmark). Like the AIC, it became an institution that – amongst other activities – collected documents on the Afghan resistance, one of the few to do so.
Civil war
In 1990 Amin warned "If the United States cuts or reduces its aid to the Afghan cause, it will be replaced by the Arabs. Afghanistan would not be at peace for a long time". Amin's prediction came true when in the 1990s the US and the Soviet left a power vacuum and a civil war broke out where the warring factions were all supported by one of Afghanistan's neighbour countries. At that time he always kept an
automatic rifle
An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes (some automatic rifles are capable of ...
behind his chair and a pistol on his desk. In 1996 he said about that Afghan Civil War "This is not truly an Afghan fight. Only a few people who want power sell themselves to foreigners."
Post-Taliban Afghanistan
Rasul also played an important role in Rome Conference held in 2001 under the supervision of former king
Mohammad Zahir Shah
Mohammed Zahir Shah (Pashto/Dari: , 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Serving for 40 years, Zahir was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan s ...
. After the fall of the Taliban regime, Prof. Amin returned to Afghanistan. At the Bonn conference, he was appointed Minister of Education in the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, representing the Rome Group. When the new school year was opened in March 2002, he said: "We have decided to project a new image of ourselves. We have to forget the past if we want to rebuild this country". During his ministry he visited Japan and met with Emperor of Japan.
Amin organised peace conferences, seminars and workshops for Afghanistan. The most famous seminar was in Pearl Continental, Peshawar, Pakistan during 1991, whose chief guest and chair person was Prime Minister,
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...
. American scholar on Afghanistan Louis Dupree and his wife, Nancy Hatch Dupree, were close friends of Amin.
In 2001, Amin became the first Education Minister of Afghanistan. He stated that Afghan girls should be given priority in their education and said, "there was a big task to rebuild his homeland (Afghanistan) education system after 24 years of unrest". That was his "to do" list in his early days as Afghanistan education minister. He was so committed to fulfil his duties. He resigned in 2002. He decided to devote himself fully to the intellectual regeneration of Afghanistan and to Afghan-Pak friendship. The 2004 article "Resolving the Afghan-Pakistan Border Question" is one of many articles by him.
Amin established the Afghanistan Study Centre in
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...
as the successor of the Writers Union of Free Afghanistan. The founder also became its director and the editor of the Journal of Afghanistan Studies quarterly. He served as the Minister of Education in the interim Transitional Administration under President
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
. While he was Minister of Education, he looked after orphan homes, schools, etc.
Ramin travelled all around the world, including to America, Denmark, Switzerland, Iran, Poland, Egypt, India, Germany, France, Rome, United Kingdom, Africa, Japan,
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
, and Australia. While he was in Egypt, he met with
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...
. His final destination and favourite place was
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
, Australia, where he settled with all of his family members.
Amin died on 31 October 2009 in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
Kabul University
Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...
, but with no permission from the
Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
The government of Afghanistan is currently disputed following the effective collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces on 15 August 2021 and the subsequent re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of ...
, he was buried in
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...
, India, where his parents are buried too. He left his wife, Benazir Amin, three sons and four daughters.