Ewans, Martin, Afghanistan: A Short Story of Its People and Politics, (New York: HarperCollins, 2002). Pp. ix, 244. 37 Ill. 8 Maps. Epilogue. Annotated Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 0-06-050507-9.
Afghanistan: A Short Story of Its People and Politics is a complete and concise synopsis of Afghanistan's leaders and foreign occupation. It gives a quick chronology of its many leaders, including Alexander the Great and ending with the Taliban. Furthermore, it describes the interplay between politics, especially in regards to Kabul, and the people of Afghanistan, relaying the constant power struggle either within Afghanistan or against foreign powers.
Martin Ewans is a credible source in terms of an accurate historical record. He served as a U.S. diplomat to both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and relies upon a wide variety of references for his information. In this respect, the book is extremely useful for the average reader looking for a quick overview of Afghani history. Moreover, the focus upon leadership and occupation sheds much light upon the present day struggle for autonomy and the extreme antagonism/skepticism of Afghani leaders towards foreign powers.
However, in the last two chapters of the book, Ewans describes the contemporary position of Afghanistan, in particular the rise of the Taliban and future outlook for the country. This on first glance appears to be extremely useful, as there are very few up to date books on Afghanistan that include the 9/11 attack and modern perspective on the Taliban. Yet, Ewans goes too far here, condemning Afganistan as a failed and "wretched" state. His opinions on the Taliban leadership contradict one another, and it is clear a hint of bias enters the author's attitude towards the end of the novel. He goes so far as to deem Afghanistan the center of global terrorism.
On the one hand, Ewans may indeed be correct in these opinions. But, the underlying tone seems to point towards the notion of unsupported and hasty conclusions of the part of the author, who had for the better part of the novel maintained an objective point of view. Now, more than ever, an attitude of understanding and hope for the state of Afghanistan is needed to help its people. To call it a wretched state and the center of global terror will only further antagonism and prevent cooperation with Afghanistan for both the masses and foreign diplomats. Hence, while I would recommend the book for a quick overview of Afghani history, I would warn the reader against giving creit to the author's bias towards the end of the book.

Shirin Raza

This is a great book for readers interested in a brief survey of Afghanistan's political history and foreign relations from ancient times to 9/11. Author Ewans, a retired British diplomat who served in Kabul, writes superbly, stays focused on issues that are important and interesting, and has a droll sense of the role played by stupidity in foreign affairs. The highlights are the chapters on Anglo-Afghan relations in the 19th century and the Soviet occupation and civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. Ewans does stumble in early chapters that reshash boring dynastic histories from the middle ages (hence my rating of four stars), but this is the only flaw in an otherwise excellent book.

Just what I was looking for. From its first beginnings till the Taliban takeover. It will show "W" why it will never be an independent country. I found it a captivating read up until the Taliban invasion. From there I have other books. I would recommend this as serving to present the history of Afghanistan.

The first few pages of this book are informative, but in the same way a few pages on europe might summarize its history from the 16th century onward. I was so overwhelmed that I gave up.

There is some good stuff in this book about America's new friends in the war for freedom and against terrorism, the Northern Alliance. I've noticed recently some commentators saying that the Northern Alliance leaders had nothing to do with the massive bloodshed in Afghanistan from 1992-96 and that was all the fault of Gullubdin Heckmatyar. Well, according to this book Heckmatyar's organization received through Pakistan about half of all the money funnled by the West and the reactionary Arab regimes into the Jihad against the Soviet Union in the 80's. He the guy wholikes to throw acid in women's faces who don't wear the burkha and has been involved in the drug trade, though his influence has been reduced dramatically in the past few years. After the communist government was overthrown in April 1992, Heckmatyar began massively bombarding civillians in Kabul. President Rabbani made him prime minister of his government in mid-93 but he took to bombarding Kabul again on Janary 1st 1994 along with general Rashid Dostum and the Shiite group Hizb-i-Wahdat, two of the prominent members of the current Northern Alliance. The Taliban drove them away in February 1995 shortly before they began their own massive bombardment of Kabul. In May 1996 Rabbani, who recently reinstalled himself in Kabul, once again made Heckmatyar prime minister and bans on certain forms of entertainment were introduced, as well as Sharia law and Islamic dress code and so on.

Other mass killings are described in this book like those by like the current northern alliance forces of Ahmad Massoud's army in the Shia Hazarajat and Abdul Malik, whose forces defected from Dostum's government to allow the Taliban to capture Mazar-i-Sharif in May 1997 but almost immediately turned against the Taliban and conducted a Saddam Hussein-like massacre of Taliban prisoners of war and it seems, thousands of civillians.

Of course it is hard to reach the utter barbarism of the Taliban. There is no need to repeat the horrific details. They emerged as a group friends in Kandahar province in late 94' who gained noteriety for fierce piety and honesty in contrast to the former Mujahadeen warlords whose forces were running around looting and raping and killing everybody. The U.S. clearly hoped that the efforts of Unocal to make arrangements with the Taliban leaders for a trans-Afghanistan oil pipeline from Turkmenistan would succeed. The dictator of Turkmenistan had switched allegiances from Bridas of Argentina to Unocal. After the whole thing blew up and they were left with a regime that was sheltering Osama Bin Laden, the monster that the Reagan adminstration helped create in the 80's, and serving as a conduit for drug smugglers (The Northern Alliance people are very heavy into that business also though Griffin does not say this).

Al Quaida is a very decentralized organization. Bin Laden may not have known about Sept 11. The evidence presented for his involvement by the British government has been rather thin. Griffin says that the evidence for him being involved in the attacks on the U.S. embassies in August 1998 and his relationship to the Al Shifa medicine plant in the Sudan which Clinton blew up is very tenuous. (...)

The prose style in this book is in parts really leaden. One gets the feeling that the book as a whole was not edited very well.

Reaping the Whirlwind provides the first comprehensive profile of the Taliban in the twenty-first century. Drawing on numerous interviews with key protagonists, conducted over a period of several years, Michael Griffin provides a fascinating eyewitness account of the Afghan conflict. He explains the origins and beliefs of the Taliban movement, its religious and political ethos, and the character of its particular brand of so-called Islamic fundamentalism. Crucially, he examines the controversial nature of the Taliban's international links with the U.S., Saudia Arabia, and other vested interests. Griffin also explores the Taliban's connections with Osama bin Laden, drug barons and drug dealers, and the CIA's ambiguous relationship with what is often viewed as an international Islamist conspiracy." "Situated between Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet states, Afghanistan has historically fulfilled the role of an artifical 'buffer state'. Resource rich and strategically important, it has been of particular interest since the end of the Cold War to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan and the United States, as well as to drug barons, arms dealers and oil corporations. Afghanistan's unstable and problematic history has been further complicated in recent years by the emergence of the Taliban - perhaps the most conservative and least understood Islamic movement in the world. Highly Recommended.

Prof Magnus, a former thesis advisor of mine, coauthored this interesting tome on how Afhghanistan has come to be such a troubled region. An excellent overview of the geography, religions, linguistic differences, and political development is discussed, which adds considerable understanding to the present situation, and likewise provides insight on how any post-Taleban regime will cope based on these differences. The historical timeline provided throughout the book, to include a concise timeline in the appendix is invaluable standing by itself. I did think the book disjointed in places and somewhat difficult to follow, despite my knowledge of the area.
Magnus had a long career actually working in Afghanistan, and likewise followed this country's political environment after the Soviet invasion: His contacts (as noted in the numerous interviews utilized as sources throughout the book) provide an unusually close to home point of view on a number of issues.
While written prior to the horrific events of 11 Sep 01, Prof Magnus sagely predicted the role Zahir Shah would play in reconstituting any new government in a post-Taleban Afghanistan. Undoubtedly this book will play a key role in the understanding of the tumultuous politics which plagues this multi-ethnic and multi-confessional region.

In Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx, And Mujahid, the late Ralph Magnus drew upon his expertise as coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California and his experience as a former assistant cultural attache of the American embassy in Kabul, to examine Afghanistan's physical situation, human environment, and modern history, as well as the rise and fall of competing internal forces which at the time included the Taliban as well as the independent regional warlords of the north. The reader is provided with invaluable insights into Afghanistan's political position within the restructured Central Asian region, the ethnic relationships complicating its history and potential for political, economic, and social stability. A new introduction by Eden Naby provides a contextual framework for a reasoned perspective on Afghanistan's past, present and future. Afghanistan remains a valuable, timely, and strongly recommended addition to both academic and community library reference collections.

Dan Rather, when he wrote the forward to this book said that "The trouble with trying to tell the story of Afghanistan, now as ever, is that it is so difficult to get the story straight and to get it out." Dr. Naby, with her co-author the late Prof. Magnus, provide the most readable form of the recent history of Afghanistan concentrating especially on the last twenty-years. We learn why it was prudent, in light of the Cold War, to aid the mujahidin, and why it was imprudent to abandon them to the machinations of their fanatical manipulators - the renegade Arabs organized by Osama Bin Laden. The chronolgy alone is worth the price. Buy the paperback edition with an epilogue that sets the story of feminists and Afghanistan in the context of American foreign policy formation.

One of the worst books that I have read about Afghanistan. Initially I was really excited about this book, but after reading half it I realized that author had gone to his local library, collected all the books about Afghanistan and copy and pasted...

The author gives 1900 years of afghan history not even half of the book, concentrates too much on Anglo-afghan wars, with a lot of quotations to fill pages, really unscholarly work.

This is anything but a "military" history book. The author does not talk at all about the afghan battle tactics throughout the history. No map of battles, and their formations... this is probably one of the worst books about Afghanistan ever.

Good only for scanning, and casual reading. And off course buy the second hand version of this book.

Like others, I read Tanner's book in order to gain a greater familiarity with Afghanistan's military history. In this respect, the book succeeds. Tanner's provides a basic overview of the subject without devling too deeply. At times I did get the impression that the author relied too heavily on secondary sources not just for historical details but analysis as well.

The rich and turbulent history of Afghanistan's history kept my attention until the final three chapters as the author moved away from historical narrative into a contemporary review of recent events which are still too close to offer any real historical judgement. That analysis must be left to the next generation to undertake comprehensively. The book lost further continuity as events related but external to Afghanistan itself were incorporated, including a somewhat detailed account of the events on 9/11 and later terrorist activity throughout the Middle East over the past two years.

I was also troubled by the author's inaccurate characterization of certain events (the most glaring being the US intervention in Somalia and Bush/Clinton's roles in the affair) that I have studied. These flaws place some doubt in my mind as to the accuracy of the rest of the book, especially concerning subjects I am less familiar with and the authors own opinions concerning the US military campaign expressed in the afterword.

This book provides an excellent start for someone looking for an introduction to Afghan military history. Read all except the last 2-3 chapters. Anyone looking for a review and analysis of the US military campaign since 2001 should look elsewhere or wait for a more comprehensive treatment of the subject with better sources thant Western press accounts.

September 11th, 2001 brought about an unprecedented chain of events. The world's most powerful nation is now deeply intertwined with one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world: Afghanistan. What happens in Afghanistan now directly affects us, and will continue to affect us for some time to come.

In light of this, I picked up this book because I knew next to nothing about Afghanistan. What I found was a truly excellent book that covered all of Afghanistan history and paints a very rich tapestry of Afghan people, and how we have come to this point in history that is the American War on Terrorism there.

Throughout this book, you will read examples of foreigners conquering Afghanistan, only to face the reality that in the end the Afghans can not be conquered. The most compelling example in this book is the first Anglo-Afghan war in the 1840s, where British forces marched in with huge numbers, but in the end, they were fleeing back to India starved, frozen, and totally panicked. The Soviet-Afghan war is equally compelling, and really provides insight into the current conflict we face where Mujahideen veteran fighters from that era have now reassembled into what is now Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Regardless of your views of the War on Terrorism, people will really benefit from reading this book. I think that by reading about Afghanistan and how it came to be will give readers a greater appreciation for what is going on there now in the current conflict, and also the War as a whole. Enjoy!

The most interesting aspect of this work is the real nuts and bolts of the war in Afghanistan, and the Pakistani contribution to the war effort. The logistical nightmare of providing arms to the Mujahideen are only one facet of this massive supply operation, and I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about this aspect of the war from a real insider.

I do find flaws in this work, however, and they basically arise from the real difference of opinion about the US role in that conflict. Yes, the United States was interested in supplying the rebels for the sake of Great Power Politics. A defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan surely would be a great victory for the West, and that is why the arms were supplied. Lets get real here. The author seems to take exception with the fact that after the Soviets pulled out, the US did not seem very interested in defeating the puppet government. Why would they care? The weapons were not supplied out of any desire to assist in the Jihad, nor were they provided out of a hope for a better future Afghanistan. Afghan politics was (and is) made up of rivalries, warlords and open conflict. The US had little interest in getting involved before the Soviet occupation, so why would they after? Any interperetation to the contrary is to miss the point. Standard realist politics, pure and simple.

The author also believes that the US removed support from the Mujahideen so that they could not defeat the communist government and create a fundamentalist regeime. The recent events in Afghanistan showed exactly why this was of such great concern to the US. Hindsight is certainly 20-20, and this book was written and published well before the 9/11 attacks on the US. But I feel that the author's concern about the lack of US support for the defeat of the puppet government has been conclusivly shown to be the correct policy choice. The fundamentalist Taliban government allowed Al Qaida to flourish, and we all know how that turned out. I don't beleive too many people who will read this book will feel sorry for the failure (at that time) of a fundamentalist take-over of Afghanistan. Too bad they eventually did so. Maybe the US should have done even more to prevent it.

Also, the author seems to find reason to blame the US for pretty much everything that went wrong with the war. Even when he had no proof, he did not hesitate to show how the US could have done the bad deed. I found very little thanks to a country that sent millions and millions of dollars to help fight the war, even if it was for reasons of self-interest. (Realist politics again.) I continually found it difficult to read where the US was selfish for only wanting to help defeat the USSR, and that the CIA should somehow have been interested in Jihad or helping the historically conflict-ridden political parties within Afghanistan. Even during this war with the USSR, the warlords (according to the author) would sell arms they were given, fight with each other, and pretty much do what they wanted. It was only by using the carrot of more arms and heavier weapons could any control be established over these groups. Why would the US want to get invloved in that???

The subject of the Stinger missiles is covered in great detail, and the introduction of these weapons really changed the whole nature of the conflict. It is claimed (correctly) that the CIA did not want to give this weapon to the Mujahideen for fear it would find it's way to terrorists and unfriendly countries. It was pointed out many times in the book how "if we had the stinger" and this defeat was because they didn't have it, the author himself admits that several weapons DID find their way into Iran. So the US was right all along to be concerned. All air travelers should be concerned that these weapons are still floating around somewhere. Pretty scarey, and the CIA was right to be worried. But that did not seem to be of interest to the author.

So all in all, it is a very good work for the inside scoop on the war from the Pakistani point of view, and it should be read as such. But, the attitude against the US was pretty hard to fathom, and it got to be an annoying part of this book. I'm hardly a flag waver, but give credit where credit is due. The major reason the Soviets left Afghanistan was because of the massive US aid effort. Perhaps that should have been pointed out more in this book.

This is a very interesting book. It provides a good amount of detail about the US - Pakistan process for arming the Afghanistan fighters. It is also an eye opener about the world of international arms sales - what surprised me the most was that many Arab nations were willing to send complete junk for weapons to fellow Muslims. I also enjoyed the story of the first shoot down of a Soviet helicopter and the videotape that made its way to Reagan.

I would argue with the statements about the abandonment of the US - we did leave but we were never in this war to nation build. All of the countries helping out the Afghanistan's were doing so to fight the USSR, not to nation build Afghanistan. We completed a bargain, however unseemly, which was to supply weapons not to make Afghanistan the 51st state. The one thing I would have liked was a bit more size. Overall, a good book and I would recommend it.

This is one hell of a book. It goes into a lot
more detail than most people want regarding
covert operations against the Soviets during
the Afghanistan war. The descriptions of the
CIA's efforts to obtain deniable armaments is
tragedy mixed with comedy. Checkbook war-fighting
doesn't work very well.

The most interesting thing I found in the book was
the description of the failures of the SAM-7 and
blowpipe missiles to bring down Soviet helicopters,
followed by the success of the Stingers. In the
book, Stingers are described as having IFF, which
makes them incapable of shooting down American
military aircraft. Perhaps this is true. If it's
not true, why would a book published 10 years ago
make an offhand claim like that?

The story of how the war ended is disturbingly
familiar to those who watched the end of the Gulf War.
Because we preferred anarchy over a fundamentalist
government, the US betrayed the mujahadeen as soon
as the Soviets left the country. After five more
years of civil war, the fundamentalists took over, anyway.

There are lots of other tidbits, and the overall
effect is to bring things into focus. It's not a
pretty picture. You can see why the various governments
involved didn't really want this book published.

After September 11, it is more relevant than ever.

Although the writer has squeezed much information and research into this book, it can hardly be labeled as possessive of a neutral character when analyzing the socio-political and economic situations prevalent in the country. This book certainly is not sufficient and certainly not recommended for developing an assessment of Afghan history or socio-political structure and strata.

Kakar is that rare and unhappy intellectual fated to an eventful life. An Afghan who studied and published in the West, then became a prominent professor of history at Kabul University, his opposition to the Soviet invasion got him arrested by the communist regime in 1982. Kakar spent the next five years in the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison, during which he had horrible experiences and witnessed even worse ones. Kakar's own life was spared, perhaps because of the interest in his case generated by American colleagues and Amnesty International. Upon release, he fled to Pakistan; and in 1989 he immigrated to the United States, where he now lives (in San Diego).

Afghanistan is a monument of scholarship by an individual who lived closely through the events described (he tells of going onto his roof, for example, to watch the Soviet troops storm the presidential palace in 1979). Kakar kept a journal over the three years 1979-82 that exceeds one thousand pages; he also used his time in prison to interview a wide range of inmates. Much of his information is new and his interpretations fresh. At the same time, his is a work of unabashed passion. The author presents a fiercely partisan history of his country, for example justifying the increasingly close contacts with the Soviet Union from the 1950s on, while presenting the Russian invasion as a bitter act of betrayal. As for the United States, he believes Americans have a moral responsibility to the Afghans, and it is now time for them to assist in transforming the poisonous culture into a healthy one. Indeed, this is more a threat than an appeal, for Kakar ends his tome with a warning that the poisonous culture . . . may grow too great to ignore: in addition to the British graveyard in Afghanistan and the Soviet one, he warns there may also one day be an American one....

A professor of history at the University of California at San Diego, Hassan Kakar's scholarly work on the dark days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan reveals the horrors of the war for those not present to experience it first hand. Meticulously documented, the book provides a detailed account of genocide by the Soviets, and the unspeakable torture of Afghans by KhAD, the Afghan government's agency of terror. While the Soviets killed over one million Afghans one village at a time, KhAD tried to break the will of the resistance in Kabul, brutalizing the proud Afghans in the overcrowded dungeons of Pul-e-Charkhi prison. Kakar speaks from personal experience, since he spent many years there as a prisoner of conscience.

The author reviews the period prior to the Soviet invasion, recounts the events and forces at work immediately prior to it, and provides an analysis of why the invasion occurred. That Brezhnev and a handful of Kremlin leaders erred is indisputably a contributing factor to the Soviet implosion which was to follow little more than a decade later. The Afghan resistence to communist rule began on a small scale shortly after the April 1978 coup by Taraki. Nationalist resistance organizations and Islamic resistence efforts gathered momentum in the years after, succeeding eventually - to the astonishment of the world. Kakar documents the "scorched earth" military policy of the Soviet invaders throughout rural Afghanistan and in the areas around Kabul.

The Afghan tragedy continued after the last US-supplied Stinger missile had been fired by the uncommonly brave Afghan mujahideen. As the Soviets withdrew, political machinations within the Pakistan based resistence groups intensified, exacerbated by foreign interference. Kakar's epilogue examines the fratricidal period following the Soviet withdrawal, and creates the context for understanding the emergence of the Taliban movement of today.Political organizations, biographical sketches, data on refugees, and the text of a 1979 telephone conversation between Kosygin and Taraki are provided in the appendices. Detailed notes and bibliography provide writers and researchers tools for further elaboration of the Afghan tragedy, the holocaust of the 1980s.

"Searching for Saleem" is one of a very few books I've found about Afghani women. It takes up where "Three Women of Herat" by Veronica Doubleday leaves off. The writing is very good although not great, but it's not really the quality of the writing that makes this book so important--it's the account of life in Afghanistan. I find it amazing that there are so few books about Afghanistan! And most are for children.

After the September 11, 2001 bombings in the United States by radical Muslim terrorists, I wanted to know more about the people of Afghanistan. Morrocco was my only experience traveling in a Muslim state, and I found that Afghanistan is radically different. This book provides a rare look into the experience of one Afghani woman who seems atypical of many of the women in the country but has the facility with English and the education to provide all of us with a glimpse into a country that's playing a significant part in our lives and that seems to be a place where few Americans have lived or traveled.

This is a gripping story of one woman's attempt to cope with a world that suddenly and ominously changed around her. She and her family were living in Kabul when a coup de etat by a group of Afghan Communists plunged the country into civil war. The immediate consequnce for her was the disappearance of her husband. Along with that the social world she had known was dramatically changed. New and strange demands were placed upon her in her university job. Ordinary social and commercial concourse in the city broke down as military checkpoints interrupted traffic. Reliable information on what was happening became impossible to come by. Rumors abounded. Her children brought home communist propaganda. As Mrs. Gauhari searched for her husband friends and colleagues in official places told contrary and implausible stories about his whereabouts; some of her relatives withdrew support; mysterious visitors for unknown reasons offered empty promises of help. The book could be read as a woman's experience in a male-dominated world. But it is much more: this is what it is like to be plunged without warning into civil war. The presumptions of ordinary life give way to the confusion, suspicion, and terror resulting from the suddend explosion of violence among neighbors and associates. In that sense this is one woman's account of life in the midst of a ferocious civil war, an experience that many peoples around the world have had in the last decade: in Rwanda and Burundi, for instance, where repeated massacres have taken hundreds of thousands of lives; in Yugoslavia where Serb, Croat, Bosnian Muslims, and Albanians have sought to cleanse each other from their respective enclaves; in Sri Lanka where Tamil separatists and Ceylonese nationalists have murdered each other for a generation; in Chechnya where a war of secession has destroyed the country.

I have read this book last year and now I read it for the second time. I ejoyed it more this time. It is a wonderful book based on events after Communism take over of Afghanistan and it brings sense to our present day events. In the Forword section of the book, Nancy Dupree indicates that ..." years of discord have stretched taut the fabric of this society (Afghanistan) and left many lingering effects. National traits once respected, honored hallmarks of Afghan character, are in jeopardy. Tolerence for others. Forthrightness. Aversion to fanatics. Respect for women. Loyalty to colleagues and classmates. Dislike for ostentation. Commiment to academic freedom. All has been compromised.
Thankfully, the spirit of courageues determination, amply evident in the pages that follow, is still strong. There seems no reason to doubt, therefore, the reconstruction can be astnishingly rapid."

Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban, London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2002. x + 148. One map. Index. HQ 1735.6.S39 2002

This book covers a topic of much relevance and attention in the contemporary world: human rights, in particular those of women in Afghanistan. It examines the social and economic conditions faced by Afghani women, and Skaine implements a question and answer structure in order to delineate this. Furthermore, it touches upon the dire necessity for employment reform for women. With current employment restrictions upon women, families are starving, and children are growing up uneducated with a lack of teachers.
The book is extremely useful in that it does not focus solely upon the Taliban as the source for gender inequalities in Afghanistan. Rather it notes the many political motives behind it, as well as cultural and social pressures. Moreover, it succeeds in showing that it is not Islam that renders the oppression of women as justifiable. Instead, it shows the many intertwining forces within Afghani culture and politics that are in fact to blame.
It is for this reason that this book deserves much attention. The American media too often portrays, or simplifies, the oppression of Afghani women into a phenomenon stemming from the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalism. The fact that the chauvinistic mindset pervades, and has existed within, Afghani society is often overlooked. This creates a dangerous situation in which, the elimination of the Taliban may cause the world to assume the issue of female oppression is automatically solved. In addition, Skaine's writing style and structure make the book a clear and easy read.

Shirin Raza

In Afghanistan the atrocities being committed against women and children are the most horrifying I have heard. This book first tells about the lives of Afghanistan women before the Jehadi and Taliban took over, explains the difference between Muslim belief and Taliban belief, and dispels common myths associated with Muslim clothing. This book talks both about the politics of the situation, and the acts being perpetrated against women, children and also men. She also includes a chapter of many women speaking about living under the conditions of the Jehadi and the Taliban. The last chapter educates us about the organizations that are working towards a change, and what we can do to help. Another good book about the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is, "Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance", and "Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom" is an excellent and comprehensive book written by two Afghanistan refugees.

For all those women who wants to know how its like living under the taliban gov't,this book is a must have. Here one can find the real situation of women living under the terror of the taliban,this book described the shocking truth of hell and one can never imagine how women in afghanistan were able to survived in this kind of narrow minded taliban gov't. Buy this book before they run out of print.

The factual errors start in the very first sentence of the forward by Dan Rather and continue throughout. Lohbeck even gets the definition of "Islam" wrong; he says it means "peace". There are plenty of pictures of Kurt for those inclined to look at them.

I fully endorse the above review of "A reader from AMERICA", and denounce the other nonsensical rubbish to be found alongside. Dr. Magnusson's review is also right. Loehbeck's is the typical gushing childish narrative, of the type that characterises modern Western writers on Afghanistan, especially those of the controversial period of the 1980s and '90s. It also contains many name-spelling and minor contextual mistakes and errors throughout. People such as him do no service to the historical reality of a very profound and key situation of the present era of the world. For one, they blame the Soviet invasion of 1979 for events in Afganistan since then. That is untrue. What the invasion did was to precipitate this crisis, but as far as its causes are concerned, among other things, the character of the Afghan nature and society are wholly responsible and should be addressed and exposed by concerned writers. The underpinnings of this crisis had started well before 1979, and this is what could have been expected to have transpired because of the rigid and vicious nature of Afghan society when it encountered social, technological and cultural progress of any kind. The pseudo-science of Marxism wasn't at all the ideal solution to anything, but Western writers should refrain from using its defeat as a scapegoat or whipping post to hide their own weaknesses and/or mask their own doings which, since 1991 especially, are almost equal in magnitude to Marxist fallacies and wrongs. Expert observers will note that both Islam and Marxian communist politics, though diametrically opposed, struck a very resonant chord somewhere deep in the sinister murkiness of the Afghan psyche. (And this isn't quite the "communism" any Europeans are used to knowing). I hate "my" people for their nature. History will remember them for the rascals and wolves that they are...yes, indeed.

This book gives a great account of Kurt Loehbecks travels, trials, & tribulations in Afghanistan. Abdul Haq is a great Mujahadin and deserves the respect of all people, it was nice to read about some of the lessor know leaders who slugged it out on the ground whilst the likes of Gulbaddin just gave orders and mullah omar was sitting in lahore with his basangers drinking tea. Mr. Loehbeck did a great job, I wish this book was longer. ;^)

I think this is yet another misrepresentation of the situation of Afghan women by someone who dropped into Afghanistan for five minutes and decided to make some cash off this bizarre fascination with the 'veiled women of Afghanistan'. From the 'Before the Taliban' photo of women in mini-skirts I realised that I would hate this book because I have been in Afghanistan since 1995 and I never saw a mini-skirt - MISREPRESENTATION OF THE FACTS - how long are you going to let people print and sell sentimental rubbish about Afghan women? I can write the type of rubbish in these books in my sleep but I wouldn't be able to face myself in the mirror because I would know that I misrepresented the truth and I have some morality unlike these 'intrepid journalists' who pitch up for a while interview a few women and suddenly understand everything. Have a little decency and stop with this Veiled this and Veiled that crap. Let's have some realistic analysis of the situation or are your readers to thick to handle anything that isn't like Hello magazine?

I lived in Kabul in the late 1970's. Although there were women who went about unveiled, attended university,and appeared to be living a life of equality to men, they were just a tiny fraction of the Kabul elite and in no way represented the lives of the vast majority of Afghan women. Afghanistan is a wonderful country that I dearly love, but it serves no purpose to pretend that they were once had a highly westernized society, where women had unlimited opportunities. Let Afghan women in Afghanistan define what their future is to be, not Western feminists who think that they know what it should be.

This book would be a superb first read for anyone wanting to understand the hardships women experienced under the Taliban. It compares women's lives before and after the Taliban came to power. The women to tell their own stories whenever possible, and photographs reinforce the main ideas. The major thrust of this book is that these women should not be forgotten again...