Even so, when I think of famous poets, Rumi is definitely not one of the first ones that pop into my head. Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, just to name a few.
Poetry translates especially badly among literary forms, and poets are usually unknown outside of their language communities. It's surely not a coincidence that the first ones to come to your mind all wrote in English. (Wikipedia kind of defeates my point by claiming that translations of Rumi's works are very popular)
Rumi is generally considered to have been Persian, not Afghan. He natively spoke Persian, lived in an area that was part of the Persian cultural sphere, and predominantly wrote in Persian.
Rumi was not ethnically Persian. He actually had Turkic heritage, but yes, his mother tongue was Persian. Since Afghanistan was part of Persian empires and was under Persian influence, then the Persian history and culture is also part of Afghanistan's history and culture.
You could accept "poppy", it's not like anybody is going to guess that and not think of opium. Besides, "opium" is not a plant! Also I knew Hossaini but blew the spelling somehow that wasn't accepted.
Assuming it's a good percentage of Americans taking this quiz (and by that I mean people from the USA, not the continents of North and South America), it's interesting how little is known about a country they've been at war with for 18 years.....
The Kite Runner is a pretty popular book and is probably one of the main sources by which Americans learn about Afghanistan. And while many of the people who have taken this are American, it's definitely not indicative of what the majority of Americans know (as is true of all JetPunk quizzes). An average score of 11 indicates the people here are decently knowledgeable on Afghanistan, but I guarantee you if every American was forced to take this quiz, the average score would go down a lot.
I don't know how true it really is but as I've mentioned before, a lot of what I think I know came from watching the movie, Charlie Wilson's War - in addition to watching TV news. The movie stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour-Hoffman and is based on a true story. The fact that it's listed under genres of comedy, drama, and biography should explain all you need to know about the origins of the US policy there.
I think it's the only book I've ever read since childhood that had that effect on me. Probably because it reminded me of so many of the women I knew in Saudi Arabia and their stories.
If the insurgency is ever resolved in Afghanistan, I would love to go there someday. It's supposed to be an extremely amazing place with gorgeous natural landscapes.
I went when the Taliban were in control. It was a mistake, I was terrified from start to finish, but the landscape is incredibly beautiful. I went to see the Twin Buddhas of Bamiyan, which hadn't been destroyed yet, but I chickened out. Still kinda wish I'd done it.
Should probably read "in 1996, and again in 2021" ... even though the group that took over this year isn't really the same group that took over in 1996 and that was responsible for the bombing of the Bamiyan Buddhas... more like a reboot of that group with the same name. And I don't think the term terrorist really accurately applies, either.
But still an excellent question for this quiz.
https://www.businessinsider.com/afghanistan-is-beautiful-photos-2017-12