Shimon Peres, the founder and former prime minister of Israel, has a famous book, “No Room for Small Dreams”. To explain this rigorous topic in one sentence, he argues that great people have great dreams while ordinary people have ordinary dreams. The history is replete with extraordinary, genius, great, and super ambitious people who dreamed big for their generations and dedicated their entire lives for achieving those big dreams.
When you have big dreams for the improvement and transformation of humanity’ lives, no matter where you are living as long as you believe in serving the humanity regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background. In Afghanistan, we also had and have persons who dream /dreamed big for their people, not only for their own community in which they live but for the whole country and their country fellows. Dr. Mohammad Yahya Noori is one of those few persons who dreamed big for his people and the future generation of Afghanistan. But unfortunately, we lost him in March 2019 as a result of a brain attack.
Dr. Mohammad Yahya Noori was born1959 in a religious and farming family in Nawrak, an area located in the first part of Behsud, Wardak Province in Afghanistan. He received his first education from his father, Karbalai Mohammad Akbar Noori, and obtained his initial elementary education at a school in his birthplace. When he was six, he was deprived of maternal favors. Two years later, at the age of eight, he lost his father. After elapsing a few days being alone, he went to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to his sister’s home. In Kabul, he resumed his education at the Habibiha High School. Graduated from Habibia High School as a high achieving student, he was accepted at Kabul Medical University – a prestigious public university located in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
When he graduated from Kabul Medical University, instead of living in Kabul with comfort and fewer problems, he chose to go to Behsud, one of the far-reaching districts of Afghanistan located in Wardak province. Wardak is located in the central and eastern region of Afghanistan; bordering Parwan to the northeast, Kabul and Logar to the east, Ghazni to the south and Bamyan to the west. Even though, he could live in Kabul to enjoy the modern facilities of life and accumulate wealth like others, instead, he went to Behsud where its inhabitants were deprived of any kind of the basic facilities of life let alone medical care services. Over there, he set up the Frakhlum Clinic with his personal budget in 1994.
Thinking of such great devotions and impetus, one can simply argue that Dr. Yahya had figured out that his knowledge and medical skills were far more needed and helpful for his birthplace residents who were struggling with several kinds of diseases due to not having access to medical health centers and aids. As the famous saying echoes, “A person’s most useful asset is not a head full of knowledge, but a heart full of love, an ear ready to listen and a hand willing to help others”. Indeed, Dr. Yahya did not only apply his knowledge and prowess for helping his people, but he also used his heart to understand his people’s problems. He did not only apply his medical ability to cure his patients’ diseases, but he also offered his social and emotional intelligence for the service of his people from the day he started working as a medical doctor.
In June 2017, I had gone to Behsud for visiting Dr. Yahya. Within the three days that I was over there, we had many fruitful and insightful conversations about the political, security, educational, and economic situation of Afghanistan but particularly the residents of Behsud. During our tough conversations, I asked him, “Dr. Saheb (Saheb is a Persian word that we use in Afghanistan to show our respect to someone) are you optimist or pessimist about the future of Afghanistan?” To be honest, his answer was out of my expectation – from a person who has been threatened several times by the militants. He told me, “Hamid, throughout my life, I have been opposed by many people of being too optimistic – of having a very promising view regarding Afghanistan. I tell them that both optimists and pessimists die in the end, but the optimist leads a hopeful and happy existence while the pessimist spends his days cynical and downtrodden. It is a high price to pay. Besides, optimism is a prerequisite of progress. It provides the inspiration we need, especially in hard times. And it provides the encouragement that wills us to chase our grandest ambitions out into the world, instead of locking them away in the safe quiet of our minds.” To put it simply, Dr. Yahya was a man who was replete with promising ideas for the progress of his community – full of hopes, determination, and motivation for moving forward despite all the prevailing challenges in Afghanistan.
As Woodrow Wilson says “We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.” Likewise, Dr. Yahya was a big dreamer. He had big dreams for his community and country. But unfortunately, the death did not grant him the chance to make his all of his dreams come true. Though he did not live long, he offered many things to his people – medical care, educational services, promoting the gender equality in his community, and most importantly, he left a legacy that anyone who has got to know him will always cherish and praise it.
In Afghanistan, girl’s education is a controversial issue, particularly in far-reaching areas. Despite all the cultural and social challenges toward the girl’s education, Dr. Yahya was a serious proponent and advocate of girl’s education. Though he was living in a traditional community abounding with rigid cultural norms that impede girls from gaining an education, he was advocating for gender equality and equal social, economic, and educational opportunities for girls and boys. He was in this believe that preventing girls from going to school on the basis of cultural norms prevailing in communities, has been a major cause of child marriage, violence against women, discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan. Therefore, he would argue that Afghan families instead of halting their girls from going to school and keeping them at home, should fight with the predominant cultural norms that underlie their interpretation of girl’s education. They should help their daughters obtain an education so that they can help the other girls who may encounter the same fate in the future. Escaping from the problems is not a rational solution, instead, facing and fighting with them can help the entire communities to secure their well-being and development in the societies. Therefore, families should help their daughters gain education and provide them with equal opportunities as their sons.
Additionally, he was inclined to hold that the lack of female education can be the root of gender inequality in Afghanistan, and women are the main victims of this gender inequality in society. Afghanistan, as the country with the most patriotic power in the political, economic and social spheres, some families wrongly either by cultural means or on the basis of the patriarchal principles deprive girls from their basic human right – gaining an education. So, via paving the way for girl’s education, communities will transform, and gender equality will be rooted in society.
Mr. Yahya was not only a medical doctor, but he was also a teacher for his people, he was a political, social, and cultural leader for his people. As we, in order to be a good leader, we must possess the quality of honesty. Our followers must know that their leader has a sense of morality and values and integrity. The subordinates must have a sense of confidence in themselves and as well as in their leader – only then a leader can be successful. Indeed, Dr. Yahya possessed all the above-mentioned qualities. When he was in charge of Frakhlum Clinic in Behsud, he treated all his staff both male and female from any cultural, racial, socioeconomic status and background equally. To say the fact, it is pretty hard to find a person to have full authority over everything and treats his friends and strangers equally. He was always saying that he was glad that he has had the opportunity to work for some of the most neglected people in Afghanistan in a remote area where its residents did not have access to basic medical care facilities. Dr. Yahya, besides serving as a medical doctor, he was encouraging the local residents to send their progenies to school. He himself advocated for building schools, obtaining the attention of foreign donors to help the local residents in providing stationery, and other facilities required for providing education.
To sum up, though Dr. Yahya is not among his people physically today, his deeds, achievements, benevolence, and services will live in people’s hearts and minds for generations. As Norman Cousins articulates, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
