Shah Muhammad Rais

Shah Muhammad Rais (born April 4, 1954) from Afghanistan is the real life "Bookseller of Kabul" as written of in Åsne Seierstad’s book from 2002.

During a trip to Scandinavia in November 2005, he declared he was seeking asylum in either Norway or Sweden, as a political refugee. Things revealed about him in Seierstad’s book had made life for him and his family unsafe in Afghanistan, especially after the book has been published as bootlegs in Persian.

He has published his own version of the story, "Once upon a time there was a bookseller in Kabul".

External links

* [http://www.kabulguide.net/kbl-bookseller.htm Shah Mohammad Rais profiled in "The Survival Guide to Kabul"]
* [http://www.kabulguide.net/kbl-booksellerevening.htm Another link from "The Survival Guide"]