The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban

by Rosemarie Skaine

Even though the people of Afghanistan in general suffered under the rule of the Taliban, women lived especially difficult lives, enduring terrible hardships. They were denied basic human rights, forced to wear veils and kept in seclusion. This work addresses the religion, revolution, and national identity of Afghan women and places them within their gender-political and religious-political roles, thus elevating our understanding of their abuse, imprisonment and murder, and offering a basis for their rehabilitation. Powerful and moving interviews with Afghan women conducted and translated by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan are presented and a brief history of the struggle of the Afghan women and an overview of the conflict between the Afghans and the Taliban are included.

Genres: Nonfiction, Womens, Politics

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kim Bauer]

Not really able to rate this one. It was very informative but I went in basically knowing zero about Afghanistan so I was at a disadvantage - there’s huge info dumps about Afghanistan’s history/wars/geopolitical standing/transfers of power that I just couldn’t really keep up with. So, since that’s more so a reflection of my lack of knowledge of Afghanistan and not so much the author’s writing ability, I’m going to leave it at no rating

[James F · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had just finished reading Fawzia Koofi's Favored Daughter for the Utah State Library's book discussion, and was looking for more background.

This was the first book in my reading on Afghanistan after the Koofi book. It was written by an American academic; although copyrighted in 2002 it was obviously written before Sept. 11 and the October US invasion, which are simply alluded to as short additions at the end of one or two chapters. In other words, the book for the most part assumes that the Taliban is in control and will remain in control for the foreseeable future. In a way, this is probably an advantage, in that the book's descriptions of Taliban atrocities can't be suspected of being written to support US war policies.There is much good material here; background and statistics, as well as descriptions of life under the Taliban by a large selection of recent refugees, and statements by a wide variety of persons, both from the UN and US government and various activist groups.

Unfortunately, the book is not well-written; at times it gives the impression of a bad student paper, being put together from random and contradictory quotations without any attempt to decide between them -- indeed, without seeming to realize that they are contradictory, especially on the US role in supporting/opposing the Taliban. Moreover, at times the writing is so ungrammatical it is impossible to tell what is actually being stated.

A few things emerge clearly, however: that the US funded the most violent and fanatical Mujahadeen groups (whether or not intentionally is disputed between various quotations) with billions of dollars in its jihad against the Russians; that US support to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia at least indirectly was benefiting the Taliban right up to Sept. 11; that US (and therefore UN) diplomatic opposition to the Taliban was largely verbal, and apart from the Taliban's support to terrorism against the West and their role in drug trafficking, the US didn't really care what they did in Afghanistan. There is much on the Afghan Women's Network, RAWA (which provided many of the interviews with ordinary women in the book) and other organizations. These are all aspects which the Koofi book downplays or ignores.

[Dixie Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this for a report on Afghanistan. It is very interesting to learn about Afghanistan and how the Taliban demoralized the men and women. They basically controlled both the men and women, an insight that we didn't get on the news.

[Weavre]

OST NON-FICTION ADULT STK 305.4 SKA