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Post Magazine
This Week:
The Geography of Grief
With David Finkel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, Dec. 10, 2001; 1 p.m. EST

Taimour Khan's family started in Afghanistan, barely survived India, fled to Pakistan, immigrated to New York. Before Sept. 11, his rise to the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center was just another American success story. Since then, members of Khan's extended family have reacted according to their distance in miles and culture from the tragedy.

David Finkel, whose article "Flowers for Taimour" appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine, was online Monday, Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. EST, to field questions and comments about the article.

Finkel has reported for The Post from both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Charlotte, N.C.: A very touching story. But what is the bottom line? What can we do to prevent this from happening again?

David Finkel: Hello everyone. Thanks for joining this discussion. The question of what can be done to prevent this from happening again isn't something that could be answered in a single magazine story -- but the experiences of the people outlined in the story do suggest the differences between people who live in opportunity and those who don't, and maybne there are answers in that. I never got the chance to meet Taimour Khan, but those in his family are, in every case, wonderfully thoughtful people. The richness of Taimour's life was exemplified in those who paid tribute to him at his funeral -- a better, more diverse collection would be hard to imagine. Conversely, the more insulated people were, in terms of both education and geography, the less able they seemed to understand the full horror of Sept. 11.

Alexandria, Va.: In your article some Pakistanis made anti-Semitic statements about Bin Laden being innocent and Jews being responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

What causes such statements? Is the Pakistani government teaching anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to its people? Are the madrassas teaching that to their students?

David Finkel: I saw nothing to suggest the Pakistani government was teaching such things. But the vile rumor that Jews were intimately involved in the attack was present everywhere. Almost every person I interviewed mentioned it -- including a top government official who was surprised when I asked him about how wideapread the rumor seemed to be. "You mean it's just a rumor?" he said. As far as what the madrassas teach -- another story I did while I was reporting in Pakistan centered on a student who was leaving for Afghanistan in a few hours to fight with the Taliban. His knowledge of Sept. 11 consisted of an hour of TV soon after the attacks. He and I spent a couple of hours together, and at one point, when I showed him magazine photographs of that day -- vivid, close-up photographs that we in the U.S. are so familiar with -- he was truly taken aback and, at least momentarily, saddened into compassion.

Silver Spring, Md.: Mr. Finkel,
Your article was absolutely gripping and heartfelt. It was good that you included the bit about the Indo/Pak partition. Many persons in the West do not know about that bloody and horrific period. Well done sir.

David Finkel: Thank you.

Sterling, Va.: David, I saw the Taimour Khan story and, frankly, didn't bother to read it because I am tired of reading tragedy stories after Sept. 11.

Looking back, I see a lot of Washington Post Magazine coverage of Sept. 11 related events. When can we go back to a time when people open the Magazine and not find yet another post-Sept. 11 story? Honestly, I think the Magazine should leave Sept. 11 alone. I'm not an escapist, but I'm not happy to keep seeing these stories perpetuated in the Magazine.

David Finkel: Thanks for the comment. I think if you comb through the issues of the magazine since mid-September, you'll find a pretty good mix of subject matter. That said, I want to add that I'm glad as both a writer and reader that the magazine has focused many of its resources on 9/11 coverage. I write for all sections of the paper, and the magazine is the place that offers the best space for purposes of story telling. And what could be more important at this time than the stories of this historic time? In the best case, the magazine, I think, makes an essential contribution to our understanding of what in the moment before it happened had been just about unthinkable.

Washington, D.C.: On Page 20: "America saw the Afghanistan emirate as a threat, as an Islamic state enforcing Islamic values, and so they wanted to destroy it. Osama is just an excuse."

David Finkel: That quote is from one of the people I interviewed for the article. I'm not sure what your question is, though. If you want to enlarge on it, I'll be happy to try to answer.

Lexington Park, Md.: Why did you not refute the interviewees' comments regarding the 4,000 Jews who did not show up to work in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11? This disinformation has been running rampant throughout the Arab and anti-American/anti-Jewish/anti-Israeli countries since right after the attack. By not mentioning this in his article, you essentially promulgated the falsehood, thereby validating it for the Arab community.

David Finkel: There was a point in the writing when I wondered whether I should. I decided not to because the rumors of the 4,000 have been discussed and debased pretty thoroughly in the Post and other outlets. As for the disinformation running rampant throughout other countries, I can say that in Pakistan at least, the disinformation goes well beyond any one rumor. In one village, for example, people were just about falling all over themslves trying to get a copy of the latest edition of a weekly paper (non-English), in which the lead story talked about a massacre of American soldiers and 80 bodies being secretly returned to a Pakistani airbase. Of course that didn't happen, but the belief that it did was irrefutable.

Virginia: Hello. None of the women pictured wear the veils. Were they all outside Afganistan and other Middle East countries?

David Finkel: The pictured women live in the U.S. and in Pakistan. In both countries, of course, veils aren't precluded. In northwest Pakistan there are shops all over the place that sell burkas. But these particular women live in places were they have a choice of how to dress, and their choices are to be uncovered.

Virginia: David: Congratulations on a well written article. It is one of the best articles I have read in recent past; as it reveals the immense complexities of our world.

David Finkel: Thanks, Virginia.

Duluth, Minn.: David Finkel: When God (or gods) bite man you write about it... now I'm only waiting for your journeys to become hardcover. A rare gift you have, sir.

David Finkel: And thanks, Duluth.

David Finkel: In further response to the last two posts, let me say that the article began with the idea of finding a victim who was of Pakistani descent. Soon after Sept. 11 I was in New York, reporting at the World Trade Center site, and in the course of that reporting I talked to several families, any of whom would have allowed me to explore the complexities of the attck's aftereffects. In the family of Taimour Khan was the rare discovery of an elegant family whose hostory presented the opportunity for even more complexities than I had envisioned. His was a family that traced past Paksitan to a part of Afghanistan. At some point the family split in a couple of directions. One followed a course that took them into Pakistan, where they remain, and the other followed a course that took them to India, to Pakistan, to the U.S. and finally, in a most shining case, to the top of the World Trade Center. I'm simplifying this a bit, but my point is that if readers are affected by the story's telling, it's because Taimour Khan's family has a story worth paying attention to in the giant mis of information that we're all using to make sense of these past months.

Woodbridge, Va.: Mr, Finkel, in your article you suggested that Pakistan's military is primarily from Punjab. So they did not have hard time controlling pushtuns in NWFP AND BALUCHISTAN. Was this assertion made on facts or myths, because the last time I checked stats on Pakistani millitary manpower. Thirty percent of the men in Pakistan's military are Pushtuns while they only make 12 precent of the population.

David Finkel: The information came from people in the military. The point, which may have come across fuzzily, was that a majority-Punjab group of soldiers might have a harder time controlling rioters who were from the Punjab than rioters with whom the soldiers had less of a connection. That's why so many officials were concerened during the weeks of rioting with what would happen in Lahore than in majority-Pashtun cities and towns in the northwest frontier province.

Annapolis, Md.: When people you were speaking with brought up the reasoning that Israel caused the attacks and 4,000 Jewish people did not go to work that day, did you try to explain to them the truth or did you stay away from it for journalistic principles? Did you find that any of the truth telling that the Coalitions have been attempting was reaching its mark or did the people you spoke with just want to believe what they already "knew?" What was the general attitude towards Bin Laden? That is, if they were able to fathom that he did it, did it turn them against him? Finally, what steps did you see moderate Muslims taking to convince people that extremism and these types of attacks are so clearly against the Koran?
Thanks for a very interesting and thought provoking article.

David Finkel: Good questions. Sometimes I explained, sometimes I didn't. The explanation wasn't to persuade, though, but as a means of furthering the interview. Even if I had wanted to set the record straight, I wouldn't have gotten very far. Neither the western press nor the best efforts of the coaltion were persuading many of the rank-and-file of anything at all. I can't tell you how many times people said a versioon of: if the U.S. has proff, where is the prooof? Why don't they tell us details? Why don't they let us see for ourselves? The lack of information had enormous consequences -- which is why I'm especially curious to see if the U.S. will release the video of Osama the Post wrote about over thwe weekend and which Cheney has said is so persuasive. If the tape is indeed persuasive, the people I spoke with in Pakistan (for the most part) would be anxious to see it.

Washington, D.C.: Just wanted to say that I thought the story was very poignant and well-written. What I found really telling was the pictures side-by-side of Taimour and his cousin in Afghanistan. While his cousin was a couple of years younger, he looked about twice Taimour's age. Life is hard there...

David Finkel: Well it is hard there. I spent several weeks in Afghanistan at the beginning of this year in Herat and Kandahar and any number of places in between, and the difficulties of the place could be seen in any and every face.

New York City, N.Y.: We feel as a family that the article seems to distort and misrepresent various things both about the family here and about the correct situation and public opinion in Pakistan. As during the extensive interviews that you conducted with the family members in NYC it was stressed strongly how secular, antifundamentalist, and anti-Taliban all the members of this family are. You also must have noticed from the 350 people who came to the memorial service in the Manhattan funeral house, which was standing room only, that the majority of them were people from the Christian, Jewish, and Hindu faith and you MUST have noticed how everyone highlighted secular values of this peace loving family. You must have also heard about 20 speakers representing all different faiths who while weeping, paid such tributes to Taimour, as well as his family, as how much they have learned and come to respect the values of this family. It was these people who truly represented the type of person he was. These long relationships he had deveolped over the past 20 years and feelings personified by what Taimour's friend Joey Richards expressed started his deeply emotinal eulogy by saying "Taimour was a Muslim and I am a Jew and that was never a subject matter and an issue with us, because we were truly brothers." It was this kind of sentiment that was echoed speaker after speaker on Nov. 3rd (his funeral). It was this essence of Taimour and his family that was literally on display in abundance, was somehow all missed in your article. Tamour's other family members tolerant and forward looking viewpoints were entirely missing. Why were they not included? Tahira, in the article somehow comes across as this semi-mystic, semi-religious person by the usage of such code words as "shrined, fortune-tellers" giving a totally inaccurate picture of this utterly modern progressive, professional woman. Instead of the emphasis on shrines and fortune-tellers it would have been more revealing and accurate to mention that she is a well known designer who spent years with large companies like Anne Klein, etc. as well as being a Web site designer. In moving to Pakistan: it seems clear that you primarily chose only a handful of fanatical viewpoints that seemed juicy and dramatic to the american readers but as you know, the reality is something entirely different. Every Western media and government have acknowledged that the overwhlenming majority of public viewpoint in Pakistan support anti-Taliban, anti-fundamentalist policies of Pakistani government. Most Pakistani's are in favor with the American viewpoints. I am very dissapointed with this article. My mother, if given the chance would settle scores with Osama herself, for the murder of her son.

David Finkel: I post this because it would be wrong not to. My reply will be personal, but I thank the readers who have called and sent emails confirming the good nature of the Kahn family. I was honored to spend time with them.

Dallas, Tex.: Mr. Finkel

This was a great article. Somehow the American public thinks that everyone in Pakistan is a Mullah and women are veiled without taking into account the actual reality itself. Your article present a great picture and a perspective from Pakistani-American family. Well done.

David Finkel: Thanks.

College Park, Md.: Can you elaborate about the political and social climate in Pakistan right now? Are there tremendous tensions that could spill over in violence, do you think? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel, or do you think that the cycle of hate will continue, fueled by the mullahs?

David Finkel: I've been back now a few weeks. From what I can tell through phone conversations I've had since my return, things are better now than they were. But they are far from settled. The tensions of third-world status, of Kashmir, of a terribly serious refugee problem, of never-ending security problems and of feeling continally burned from countries that have promised help and not quite delivered don't go away overnight. I spent a good part of this year in Pakistan, both pre- and post-9/11, and while I've seen plenty of lights and plenty of tunnels, I haven't seen many examples where the light's shine comes all the way through.

David Finkel: I'm afraid time is up. Thanks again to all who took the time to read the article and respond.

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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