Contested Terrain: Reflections with Afghan Women Leaders

by Sally L. Kitch

Sally L. Kitch explores the crisis in contemporary Afghan women’s lives by focusing on two remarkable Afghan professional women working on behalf of their Afghan sisters. Kitch's compelling narrative follows the stories of Judge Marzia Basel and Jamila Afghani from 2005 through 2013, providing an oft-ignored perspective on the personal and professional lives of Afghanistan's women. Contending with the complex dynamics of a society both undergoing and resisting change, Basel and Afghani speak candidly--and critically--of matters like international intervention and patriarchal Afghan culture, capturing the ways in which immense possibility alternates and vies with utter hopelessness. Strongly rooted in feminist theory and interdisciplinary historical and geopolitical analysis, Contested Terrain sheds new light on the struggle against the powerful forces that affect Afghan women's education, health, political participation, livelihoods, and quality of life. The book also suggests how a new dialogue might be started--in which women from across geopolitical boundaries might find common cause for change and rewrite their collective stories.

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2014

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading of the terror and constraints that dictated the limits of action for women like Jamila and Marzia helped me to see for the first time in a long time the freedoms that I had been taking for granted as an American citizen. Definitely not my standard reading fare, but one of my favorites from my women's studies class this semester.