Well, you won't be seeing one of those in Kabul anytime soon (see childish review title, above). Which is, in a sense, one of the scant but meaningful advantages enjoyed by women in conservative societies, as the voices in this insightful book make abundantly clear. If 'liberation' means appearing on the cover of "Maxim" clad in a thin veneer of Silly String, many would think twice about buying into the modernity that we're peddling. This insightful book elicited a passel of new notions in me about the need for enlightened relativism when comparing modern and traditional societies. All of which were moderated abruptly when I shared them with my wife - who herself was recently 'liberated' from the beaches of Punta Del Este, where the garb of most Maxim girls would be dismissed as laughably prim. Her predictable response was to christen me 'Mullah Charles' and to withhold her affections from me for a week - a modern Lysistrada, albeit one without a Peloponnesian War to stop. My bumbling attempt at atonement - trying to assert my modernity by boorishly commenting that author Mehta looked "rather hot" in her inset photo - only proved to both of us that I have plenty to learn about women from my own hemisphere, never mind the other one.

If the women in Afghanistan are not going to live free in the near future, every one of us is guilty! If girls are dying because they are girls WE have blood on our hands - every single one of us! We can stop it, if we unite and if every one of us is AWARE and WILLING to put an end to this! No woman in the western world can tell HER daughters...... I did not know! The book WOMEN FOR AFGHAN WOMEN is a brutal documentary but written with a tender heart and endless love. Read, learn & act! The strongest wapon against OPPRESSION is: EDUCATION!... go and spread the word!

I recently read this book and was most impressed by the honesty of many of the Afghan women, as well as the essays which clarified what the Q'uran says about women. As far as Islam goes, it is very important to make a distinction between theology and culture. Many of the things that that non-Muslims view as unacceptable (with respect to women)in the Muslim world are based on cultural practices not the Q'uran. Afghan women have been clear in this book in stating that although they want the support of women worldwide, that they must be the ones to determine the direction of the women's movement in Afghanistan. It is critical to the sucess of such a movement that it develop within a cultural and religious framework that is appropriate to them. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kabul from 1977-79 and hold both Afghanistan and it's people close to my heart. We must support their efforts toward rebuilding their country, but remember, it is their country!
Caryn Giles Lawson

In little more than a hundred pages, Rall dissects and analyzes the recent war on terrorism in Afghanistan and shows why it may never be won. Eye-opening, frightening, and dispiriting. I do have some minor quibbles with it, though-- there is some repetition between the graphic novel and the written portion, and his characterization of the Afghanis themselves is sometomes contradictory. Still, this is essential reading. I've always hated the phrase, "If you read only one book this year, make it this one," but in this case, it holds true.

First-hand reporting on the feelings of the various combatants in Afghanistan. Thoroughly enjoyable. Not for those who believe the U.S. is always saintly in foreign policy.

An amazingly concise and chillingly realistic account of a crazy situation brought on paper in a powerful way.
What words and photos don't always express, Rall transfer in cartoons. You'll feel like freezing on the outskirts of Mazar E-Sharif and chased by bandits ...
If you think "Maus : A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History and Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman, is well done, rush for that one too.
If you didn't read any of them - go for both. Even faster !

Wonderful book. The photography is just so compelling. I wonder how Haviv got such great exposure. Together with the rich text...While my expertise lies in the Middle East, this is by far the best book I've ever seen on Afghanistan, irregardless of the current war.

Success in war reporting can be excruciatingly elusive. Especially in military photo journalism. In America, where the vast majority takes a car to drive to the burger joint two blocks down the road, it can be a Sisyphus task to invoke deep emotions for human suffering. Of course, I am not taking into account tears - the cheapest and easiest commodity that will secure an Oscar in no time. I am talking about emotions and feelings that make one understand that there is something terribly wrong with humankind. Mr. Haviv and Mrs. Ozernoy have successfully invoked exactly the latter.

I believe that this book does not just introduce one to the roots, core and consequences of the war in Afghanistan. It laces one into the complex fiber of life that almost does not want to part from medieval. Mr. Haviv has captured an ethnos in a conflict that is intertwined with the essence and color of hard land called Afghanistan. Mrs. Ozernoy added descriptive passages that make one wish for an ability to rebel against passivity of comfortable nations.

I was stunned to actually feel uncomfortable when I was looking at the pictures of troops' movements. I almost felt dust penetrating my retina. Then my eyes were soothed by pleasing colors of Afghan fabrics that were part of a picture depicting life of women there.

There are many brilliant allegories in this book. When understood, they will help us all live peacefully.

This book was recommended by a friend of mine, who said the book really opened her mind to the people of the country of Afghanistan and to their struggles. After reading this book, I see what she means! The pictures are beautiful, in a haunting way, and the images will stay in my mind for a long time. After hearing so much about Afghanistan on the news, it was refreshing to finally see what life is like for the real people. The commentary is sharp and savyy and went well with the photos. This is one book I won't forget because I learned so much from it!

This book told the of the accounts of a man dedicated to One. This is no ordinary account of a missionary in a foreign land. We read of his good days and bad days. We see John pouring out himself to the people of Norther Afghanistan. We see him at times fustrated and angry. John came accross as just a regular person with an irregular call on his life. He is God's man in Northern Afghanistan.
This book will brings both laughter and tears. It will have you cheering and booing.

I hope many will have a chance to read this book. You will get a glimpse of a life changed by God, and how this young man in his desire to serve the underprivileged found himself serving in a Northern Afghanistan refugee camp. The description and stories from the refugee camp are quite interesting and some are inspirational. For those of us who struggle with the question of why God allows all the problems we see in our world, perhaps the reader will find some answers. Hopefully, we will all be motivated and driven to serve and give to those who are less fortunate.

Not only is this book an interesting and insightful picture into John Weaver's experience, it also reveals the true motive behind so much of the work going on all over Central Asia. I am so grateful for John's gift of articulation and his committment to be honest and bold about the commission we have all been given--to use our blessings and resources to bless and help others in the world. This book is certainly not one meant only for religious readers! Definitly an important read for secular as well as Islamic background people. It gives insight into the heart of relief and community development work ... and it, more importantly, unveils the often misinterpreted heart of love and compassion that many Western aid workers have for peoples who are different than them!

'Kabul'is a great read on several levels. I read this book when it came out in 1986 and then again recently. In the eighties, at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, I found it to be a great story with compelling characters and a window on an exotic country that I knew absolutely nothing about. Now, in 2001, I have reread it and absorbed far more about the tumultuous and confusing political situation that brought Afghanistan into the situation in which we see it today.

'Kabul' features the half-American family of a minister to former King Zahir Shah. The eldest son is a journalist later turned rebel leader. The daughter of the family is American educated. We see her life in the the U.S., tormented by political and familial loyalties and contrasted against the lives of her women friends back home. The youngest son is educated in Moscow and we see him evolve from a spoiled rich kid into a passionate and patriotic man. Issues of tribal loyalties and boundary disputes that I am reading about in the news every day are much more understandable to me after reading this book. I literally made a check list of the many conflicts Hirsh dramatizes so effectively in fiction that are now playing out on the world stage.

It is fortunate that this book has been reissued in paperback right now. Its time has definitely come!

By using vivid characterization and clever prose, Hirsh prompts readers to explore how world politics, family relationships, and individual duty are intertwined -- not only in the frame of the novel, but in their own lives, as well. The novel provides a fascinating perspective on Afghanistan, and illustrates the need for passive observers to cross the boundary separating basic knowledge of current events and deep understanding of the causes behind them.

How to explain it? The turmoil, anger, recognition and just plain fascination, that gripped me upon reading Mimi Hirsh's novel, Kabul. The book follows the fortune of an upper-middle class family in Kabul that is headed by a brilliantly intellectual but chronically depressed father (sound familiar anyone?) and an American mother, whom I had to keep reminding myself was a product of the 1930's. The story starts in 1973 Kabul, with its lush gardens, crisp skies, and high hopes, and ends in the chaos of 1980's Peshawar, with its painful displacement, squalid conditions, and chaos.

While published in 1985, the book had yet to reach a wide audience of Afghan-Americans. When my cousin Mina, gave it to me on a disjointed weekend in San Antonio, Texas, where I also happened to meet her for the first time, I figured, ughh, just more pulp fiction along the lines of Idries Shah's Kara Kush, or Ken Follett's Lie Down with Lions using the Afghan tragedy as a sub-text for entertainment or worse. But I was hooked, fast and furiously hooked on the details, the telling truths, and the massive ironies of Afghan upper-class society of the early 1970s that I had barely witnessed as a 12-year old child.

Let's get the anger about the entrenched sexism over with first. The girl gets hurt, keeps getting hurt, looks bad, acts stupid, and loses. Just because it's always happened that way in our society didn't make it any easier to take. Just because I've seen my mother, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, etc., suffer and struggle to define their own identities did not make it any easier to see the only real female protagonist go down in bitter self-destruction. To make matters even worse, the girl gets punished for having sex, whereas her brothers just have their cakes and eat them too, in the classic style. How banal can you get, my feminist deconstructionist sisters must be saying, right? But you know what? That's not Mimi's fault. She wrote it as she saw it, and if we've had different experiences, then it's up to us to write those different stories with the successful endings for the girls. Okay? Let's move on....

The most striking dimension was that one finally gets a feeling for what compelled some members of our families to go Communist. If you've been raised primarily in the West, in a family that has strongly identified with the mujaheddin movement (most of our families, prior to the burning of Kabul in the early '90s), then we can safely assume that you hated, hate, and have taught your little brothers and sisters to hate those of our people that 'turned' Communist. Not that this book gives them any sympathy, but it does go a long way to explaining what was going through their heads, particularly those that joined the Communist Party out of true idealism and hopes for developing Afghanistan beyond the corrupt feudal monarchy that it was. (oops! Did I say that?)

Lots of people, especially in my family, are going to have serious issues with the characterizations of political and social figures in this book. Too bad. They can write their own books. Somehow Mimi got in there and got it right. Far be it from me to attempt a political analysis of who did what to whom, but let's just say that big mistakes were made, much blood was shed, and our beautiful country was destroyed. I want answers from Mimi. How did she get to know us so well? What is she doing now? When is she going to write more?

The coolest thing was to see typically Farsi expressions, like 'dirt on your head', 'may you not be tired', etc. in an English novel. The not-so-cool thing was to see the lack of communication in the family that is the center of the novel. I kept thinking: why don't they just TALK to each other??? Why does there have to be so much DRAMA?? Good God. They all so clearly loved each other, and yet they do their best to totally ream each other in the worst ways. I know that Oprah and Dr. Phil weren't around back then, but I kept thinking, come on......just COMMUNICATE!! But this is a major problem in our culture. We communicate through nuances and gestures, which are lovely and elegant in their place, but when it comes to something as important as the people that you love, it's less than effective sometimes.

If anything, this book convinced me that my brother and sisters are much more important to me than I had ever thought possible, more than any political cause, old grudges, hurt feelings, or even land or money (as a Nassery, that's a tough one). A part of me really wanted to blame the mother - but isn't that typical projected self-hatred? Truly, the mother was annoying in how little nasyatting she gave her kids AND most especially how much she let her mopey husband get away with. Not many Afghan wives would be quite that passive - they would be appropriately passive-aggressive, of course. But she does send her daughter off to Radcliffe, which was unusual back then, so I guess I have to be satisfied with that. There's stuff to complain, the younger son is a major PIA, the daughter's job at an international organization is so girley, I found myself irritated most of the time I was reading the book, picking at minor details, but you know what? That's when I knew that she was touching the bruised parts of me, and that's when I knew that she was doing her job as a writer.

Vladislav Tamarov is barely nineteen when he is drafted into the Soviet army and sent to Afghanistan. His immersion in Soviet propaganda does not prepare him for what he will find there. His training has little to do with his assignment as a mine-sweeper. He serves his two years, somehow survives, and returns home to Leningrad. His life becomes chaotic. Somehow his Afghan experiences seem more real than the life he is living. Later he emigrates to the United States where he lives now, thirty-eight years old. But really, he never comes home from Afghanistan. In his spirit, he is still trapped in that war.

As luck would have it, Vlad (as he likes to be called) is a talented photographer and writer. Somehow he manages to keep a journal and take pictures during his entire tour of duty. Now he shares the pictures with us. Plain pictures of grim, haunted young men. Men who will never go home. Men who will die within hours of being photographed. Men resting briefly before the next battle or ambush. The book is built around these photographs, with accompanying text that is simple and spare.

Vlad serves his time, but really, he never comes home. In his spare, simple writing, his consciousness wanders back and forth between "home" and Afghanistan, never at peace. For him, only the war experience is real. The only people he can really feel at home with are Afghan veterans, and--interestingly--veterans of Viet Nam.

Afghanistan is not a sentimental book. It is a simple, plain-spoken account of a very bad time. It is a powerful statement about war, all war, yet it does not lecture the reader. It is not a book you enjoy, but it will make a deep impression on you. It is exquisite photo-journalism. I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

This is the extremely poignant story of a young Russian from Leningrad by the name of Vladislav Tamarov who at the age of nineteen was conscripted into the Soviet Army knowing full well his destination upon completing his basic and airborne training, Afghanistan. Rarely if ever have I read a story such as this, told with the full depth of emotions over what someone has seen and been forced to participate in.

After his conscription, Vladislav went to basic and airborne training, where by his description the training was wholeheartedly inadequate to the task at hand. But then, armies can train basic trainees in the very basics of soldiering but they can never fully prepare them for the realities that lay ahead when facing actual combat. Of note is the fact that he and his fellow trainees spent a lot of time on the airborne training only to never use it in Afghanistan.

Armed with this most minimal of training, Vladislav and his fellow basic training graduates headed off for Afghanistan. Landing in Kabul he saw the first of many dichotomies where the people of Afghanistan attempted to continue to live their lives the best they could despite rocket attacks and a constant shifting between the Afghanistan government's forces and the Mujahadeen. To add to his already cumbersome load of trying to learn how to survive in combat, he was also immediately picked out to be a minesweeper, the job that few soldiers of any army wants to have.

Vladislav goes on to tell us of the many strife's and hardships that both he and his fellow soldiers endured and some which who did not survive. I found the style in which he told his story to be quite compelling as he tells it with a great depth of emotion to include areas where he seems to almost be in a dream/nightmare state where in one paragraph he's home, he's made it and in the next paragraph he's still in Afghanistan running for his life or attempting to save a friends life.

Of interest is how for quite some time at the beginning of this war the Soviet people were not told what was happening and why young soldiers were coming home in zinc coffins. To us, as Americans, it would seem unthinkable for our government to commit so many assets to a combat action without telling the general populace. To think that the USSR attempted to do is almost inconceivable.

Overall this is a story in pictures and words that is very telling of the experiences young men go through in war and the author deserves high praise for bringing it to print and those of us fortunate to have read it! I myself am in the Army and I found that I learned a great deal from this person that today I call a friend but back in my early days in the Army I was told he and his fellow soldiers were my enemy, thank God that's a war that never happened. I hope for him today that the demons of this war do not still haunt him for he and his fellow Afghansti have seen enough demons!

I highly recommend this book to any and all for it will certainly enrich your knowledge of the Soviet Afghan war and bring you in touch with the author who a truly honorable man who when he was but a mere teenager was forced to grow old before his time. {ssintrepid}

Vladislaw Tamarov, the author of "Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story" was a mere 19 years old when he was drafted to Afghanistan. Once there, Tamarov was 'selected' to be a minesweeper, and he served almost two years before returning home to Leningrad. Tamarov was one of the lucky ones; he returned to tell the story of his time through photographs and journal entries.

Tamarov describes the history--official and unofficial--behind the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, training prior to deployment, and the four types of military action that took place there. Weapons are also described, and there are also photographs of unexploded mines, minesweepers at work, and many photographs of the other young men who served with Tamarov.

The one thing that struck me over and over again as I read this book was the word "WASTE." The photographs of the young soldiers who never returned home stand as a monument to the utter ridiculous waste that occurred under the name "Afghanistan War." What difference did it make to the world or humankind? Has anything changed as a result? Did the world improve immeasurably or even measurably for that matter? The answer to those questions is a single, loud resounding 'NO'. And the only message that can be drawn from this book is the utter futility and madness of war. I would like to commend the author for creating a memorial through his marvellous photographs for the men who seem to be destined just to become empty statistics. The young men memorialized in Tamorov's photographs did not belong in Afghanistan, and neither did they deserve to die. I am glad that someone was there to record their short lives before they were stolen away forever--displacedhuman

Khaled Hosseini has gifted us with an electrifying and unforgettable first novel. His reading of it is more than eloquent.

"The Kite Runner" is, over and above all, a penetrating story of friendship. Amir, the narrator, is the son of a wealthy Kabul man, a person of importance. On the other hand, Hassan is the son of Amir's father's servant, and a member of a disdained minority. The two boys grow up together in the same household, within the same walls yet destined to be worlds apart.

Amir and his father will eventually flee Afghanistan and find refuge in California. Despite his safe haven Amir cannot forget Hassan, the friend he left behind. When he learns that Hassan and his wife have been slain by the Taliban, Amir wonders about the fate of the couple's son. He returns to his native land.

Despite the destruction and heinous crimes one still finds rays of hope in this heartfelt story.

- Gail Cooke

Very few books have moved me like The Kite Runner - it is a gripping and finely crafted novel, deserving of every ounce of praise received so far. This novel is heartbreaking, yet hopeful, and emotional riveting - at times I swelled with happiness and a page later I fought back tears.
An important book that follows Afghanistan through it's many facades in the past 3 decades, full of great historical context and detail, giving insight to a country that we only know from the Soviet occupation in the 80s and the Taliban after that - a country that before these regimes, was beautiful and full of promise and prosperity.
This is a book not soon to leave my memory - buy it and read it immediately. It is refreshing in it's uniqueness and gripping in it's beautiful voice. An absolute achievement for a debut novel - let's hope this is only the beginning for Khaled Hosseini.

This is an extraordinary and important first novel from a former citizen of Afghanistan. The story addresses decades long upheavals in the world, particularly the Middle East. The harsh lessons of war prevail as a fascinating country, rich with history and tradition, is decimated by years of invasion, internecine war, religious intolerance and a rigid class system. As well, there is the theme of parent and child, in this case father and son, the importance of that primary relationship in determining the future of a child.

As a young boy, Amir leads a sheltered life, one of privilege and luxury, surrounded by learning and culture. As the son of an upper class Pashtun, Amir has a constant playmate in Hassan, son of his father's Hazara servant of many years. Each winter the boys compete in the popular sport of kite running, Hassan's daunting agility adding to their success. As a Hazara, Hassan has no importance as a person and is in imminent danger when threatened by a local bully. Amir has the opportunity to intervene, but in his arrogance, he hides behind the superiority of class, betraying his companion. Amir's extemporaneous decision will define the inner dialog of his entire adult life.

Immigrating to America with his father just before the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Amir does everything in his power to make his Baba proud. It seems his Baba cannot be pleased, requiring much of his only son. But, as the years pass, father and son reach a place of mutual understanding and respect. Later, when the Taliban is in power, an old family friend contacts Amir, offering a second opportunity at redemption. Having spent most of his life consumed by shame and regret, Amir recognizes the very real implications of his decision so long ago. His internal struggle is the underlying theme of the novel, which spans Afghan history from the peaceful 70's to the repressive rule of the Taliban in the late 90's.

The desperate battle to preserve the cultural heritage of Afghanistan spans Amir's life in Kabul and America, played out upon the world stage. Amir and his father have lived safely in America while their homeland is decimated by constant warfare. After years of chaos, the streets of Afghanistan are lined with beggars, fatherless children whose future is marginalized by poverty. "There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood."

The sweet simplicity of youthful winters spent "kite running" with Hassan, seem light years away, illuminated in retrospect by the boys' unfettered innocence. Returning to Afghanistan as a grown man, Amir is challenged as never before, charged with the protection of a young life already scarred by the random violence that is visited upon the disenfranchised. With inordinate compassion Hosseini soulfully portrays Amir's impossible dilemma, where salvation lies in his potential for human kindness towards the less fortunate. Given another opportunity to heal the terrible wounds inflicted by personal choice, Amir's potential for compassion is renewed. He begins to understand the power of forgiveness, when the impossible becomes possible. Suddenly, the wild joy of two young boys' soaring kites against a winter sky is an everyday miracle. Luan Gaines/2003.

do not pass this one by.... you will NOT regret it. its captivating and devastating. its a MUST read!

On behalf of these sisters from Afghanistan, Batya Swift Yasgur writes with a brilliant pen, a compassionate heart, and the desire to facilitate desperately needed social change. Each in turn, the sisters speak of what life was like in Afghanistan, both before and after the institution of the Taliban regime: before, their worries were few and their joys plentiful; after, they were subjugated, oppressed, bullied, beaten. They speak of their friends and family members killed at the hands of a cruel government, of women who took their lives to escape, of not being able to walk outdoors for fear of punishment or even death, of being attacked in their own home. I cried as I read, and my heart broke for them. Reading this book was both a pleasure and a responsibility. After what these women have survived, after what Afghan women are still experiencing, we owe it to them to listen.

These two sisters lend their voice as a voice of a people, a voice of a nation of women who still struggle to be heard. Not only is this a book of truths, it is a book of horrors at last unveiled. For women living in oppression in any nation, from the United States to Afghanistan to Nigeria, one can only hope that Ms. Yasgur's ability to listen will open the eyes and ears of all humanity. If we did, the reperession and brutality endured by the women in this work--and of women everywhere-- could possibly become a thing of the past.

David Fleishhacker's "Lessons from Afghanistan" is based on the author's experiences in the country as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960's. This brief account is, however, more than just a memoir of a vistor who was in Afghanistan forty years ago. Fleishhacker deftly connects his experiences with current events. Unlike many of the "instant experts" whose views on Afghanistan appear daily in the media, this book gives one a feel for what the country is really like. This slim book is a good way to get a sense of the country as experienced by someone who was there and who had an opportunity to observe the way average people live their lives.

David Fleishhacker uses his personal experience in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan as a framework to teach us about that country's history, topography, and culture. His sense of humor and his affection for the people of Afghanistan make this a fun book to read, but Fleishhacker also has a strong message--urging everyone to gain more knowledge and understanding of other cultures and places in the world. A wonderful book!

Three cheers for David Fleishhacker, a wonderful writer! And, three cheers for the Peace Corps! Far more than a collection of reminiscences, this little book contains the sort of philosophy, based on history and experience, that should be the underpinning of our foreign policy everywhere. I devoured it at one sitting and only wished he had written more. Clear, funny, honest and tender, this book should be required reading for our entire State Department, the Military Establishment, the "Lords of Poverty" (international aid/relief organizations)and literally every American involved in overseas activity. For that matter, it should be required reading in every high school and board room in the country. Great stuff.