The Rug maker of Mazar-e-Sharif demonstrates that one's definition of home can change

Home has been and will always be more than the four-walls and the roof it consist off, it is an internal feeling of comfort, safety, happiness and belonging. A home is where the heart is , it is where you can practice your culture freely, be who you are freely and be accepted unconditionally. All of us ,man or woman, big or small unconsciously look for that feeling we had as a child in our mothers hands , not the four-walls that held our house into place but that feeling that makes those four-walls home . The need for a securer and safer home is emphasised through Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman's 'The Rug maker of Mazar-e-Sharif ' as it is the catalyst for Najaf's journey .The narrative is set in two very different societies, landscapes and cultures, half of the narrative set in Afghanistan , in the subjects dangerous homeland and the other half set in Najaf's future-home Australia. As Najaf lives in Australia he constantly remembers his homeland Afghanistan , comparing it to this new land of Australia , this reinforces that a home is a memory or a feeling in one's head , not a physical aspect in one's life. Mazari and Hillman highlight the importance of a safe home in one's life, illustrating that the ideal home is where one can live without feeling threatened or unsafe.

A home has always been a icon of sanctuary ,but Najaf realises that he has taken his sanctuary for granted as he did not truly appreciate his safe home in Shar Shar when he was a young boy and when peace prevailed. A home is symbolised as a 'paradise' somewhere of peace, comfort and happiness, but Najaf did not think that the mountainside of his childhood was a paradise at all , because he was yet to experience the opposite , hell : and when the Tali...

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...they can belong.

Before the Taliban's arrival, to Najaf Afghanistan was and would have always been his home. He believes there is futility in learning geography he states 'How could it help me to know of the great oceans of the world , of the continents ,of the lands ten thousand miles away that I would never visit?' as he would never leave his home Afghanistan which is ironic because he does leave Afghanistan in search for a new safe home 'ten thousand miles away'. Australia is now his home and he has learnt to accept it as his home, but he will never forget his homeland Afghanistan as that is where his first 30 year of his life was lived . He carries Afghanistan in his heart , as a memory of home but Australia as his physical home. Like the American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes said 'Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.'