“Life is a journey, not a destination,”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet & philosopher
Emerson might as well have been writing about Numan Qardash.
Qardash just completed his master’s degree in European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton.
Born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, his family moved to Uzbekistan when civil war broke out. He moved to Canada in 2007, starting at Carleton in 2010.
His master’s research project took him to Kyrgyzstan.
“Kyrgyzstan is the only country in post-Soviet space that experienced two revolutions within five years,” says Qardash. “My research dealt with democratization in Kyrgyzstan and leading factors of the two uprisings in 2005 and 2010.”
When Qardash was in Kyrgyzstan in 2012, he visited the main square where the two revolutions happened and talked to several eyewitnesses. He also completed an internship in an NGO called Youth Human Rights Group in Bishkek where he received first-hand experience about how the civil society works in that country and how issues of fundamental human rights are dealt with in Kyrgyzstan.
Qardash has also travelled to various cities across North America, Europe and Asia, documenting his travels through photography. You can view his photos at: http://www.qardash.com. Here is an example of his work:
The following photo won first place in the people’s category in Carleton’s Through a Global Lens Photography Competition.
Last year, Qardash visited his homeland, Afghanistan, for the first time in 20 years to attend his brother’s wedding. Numan’s other brother Sulyman Qardash is the founder and lead singer of the first Afghan rock band Kabul Dreams.
Qardash says he was initially quite optimistic about his visit home further to all of the foreign aid that had been allocated to the country.
Says Qardash: “The poor condition of traffic roads, the absence of central sewage system, the amount of air pollution and dust, and a lack of proper sanitation are the problems that people have been facing as a daily basis in a densely populated city of Kabul. However, I also witnessed that no matter how many conflicts we had in Afghanistan, life goes on: kids go to school, play soccer or cricket; dozens of new songs are written every day, over 70 TV channels and more than 100 radio stations are operating; the media is relatively free and transparent compared to neighboring countries; most importantly, the foundations of central governance are established although there are still myriad of problems in the system.”
Qardash, who speaks four languages fluently, first came to Carleton because, “I found out that this program was one of the most prestigious programs of its kind in Canada and the academic team that was working at EURUS included several leading scholars of post-Soviet studies.”
Now that he has finished his studies, he plans on taking a year off (perhaps travel to Afghanistan) and then apply for PhD in political science. He will be graduating on June 12, 2013 at 9:30 a.m.
