Mrs Belqis Alavi Jafari is a Ph.D. candidate in François Rabelais University of France. She is currently writing her Ph.D. on “The imagination of Afghanistan in travel literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”. Her thesis deals with representations of Afghan society in European travel literature, especially between 1922 and 1979. In the imagination of scholars and writers traveling back and forth to Afghanistan, that country was a peaceful country where they were warmly welcomed. It was a refuge from European wars in that period, while now the situation is totally inversed; now Afghans are running to Europe to seek peace.

Mrs Alavi said that: “for a long time I was searching for documents, which were hard to find for my research. Luckily I was introduced to ACKU through another friend and I was able to find most of what I needed”. She described ACKU as ‘a well-equipped and calm place that facilitates research. I am very happy that ACKU exists for research.’