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زویا: سرنوشت من افغانستان نام دارد
Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom, Zoya, John Follain, Rita Cristofari
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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February 7, 2017
Khaled Hosseini introduced me to Afghanistan, to its beauty and dark present. From Zoya, a twenty-three-year-old girl who escaped Afghanistan before it got worse, I understood how a war-torn country looks like. As the back cover of Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom says, "Kabul was always more beautiful in the snow. Even the pile of rotting rubbish in my street, the only source of food for the scrawny chickens and goats that our neighbors kept outside their mud houses, looked beautiful to me after the snow had covered them in white during the long night."
Born in Afghanistan, a land ruled and taken by monsters, Zoya saw everything since she was a child. Both her parents used to undertake secret work against fundamentalists. When most of the Afghanistan was burning under the Russian regime, Zoya's mother was working with RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. A secret society that undertook the task of making the world aware of what Afghan people are facing under Russian regime. How their beautiful country was being torn down a bit by bit every day.
One day, her father never came back, and soon after few days, her mother. Zoya was then taken by her grandmother to Pakistan so that they can be safe over there and Zoya can have a normal life as a child. But soon enough, Zoya grew up to follow her mother's footsteps. She rejoined RAWA and started undertaking missions to Afghanistan and refugee camp sites of Pakistan. And on such trips when a reader accompanies Zoya, chilling details of Taliban regime surface.
The barbaric assassinations, women begging and being beaten up in the streets, children amputated and left on the streets to die, the fundamentalism that was seeped deep into the veins of Afghanistan, houses were torn apart by bullets and bombs, women taken from their homes to be raped and tortured. Young Hazara boys being captured and molested by Taliban and the constant battle of hearts and soul. The fighters that were created to save Afghanistan were slowly destroying it and the civilians were being crushed under it.
On the other hand, Zoya was learning everything that she could to destroy the evil. An oath was taken in childhood, that she will relieve her country from the clutches of this demon, and she was now working towards it. Taking undercover trips to recruit new members for RAWA, trying to help as many people and children as possible, Zoya and her RAWA colleagues took various risks to make people aware globally about atrocities that take place in Afghanistan.
And somewhere in between, 9/11 happened. And another country decided to ravage war on Afghanistan and Taliban in 2001 under the name of Northern Alliance. Northern Alliance was created to save Afghanistan from the clutches of Taliban and its diktat. But as they say, when two elephants fight, the grass under them crushes to all extent. And that's exactly what happened with Afghan civilians. Now after millions murdered including the general public, where does Afghanistan stand today?
Zoya's story is a powerful book that vividly brings out the realities in a direct and unsentimental way. The facts are clear from the beginning, with a special emphasis on RAWA, an organization that is still trying to regain their lost homeland and it's glorious days. After reading the book I went through RAWA's site where I could see exemplary work being undertaken for Afghan children and youth. And then I came across the gallery section when goosebumps started coming. A bucketful of pictures showing the crude reality of Afghanistan, right from the Soviet Era.
We don't get to see the atrocities that happen all over the world through our own eyes, many of them hidden some way or the other. But realistic books like these show you a true picture. Many times my parents have asked me why do I read such heavy books, and I always tell them that even when I can't do anything about it, it is important to know what is happening. Zoya's story is a brilliant memoir of a girl who is just like me but stuck in a very opposite situation where she has lost everything to fundamentalism and is now in an alien country trying to fight for others, so that they don't face a fate like her. It's a must read.
Born in Afghanistan, a land ruled and taken by monsters, Zoya saw everything since she was a child. Both her parents used to undertake secret work against fundamentalists. When most of the Afghanistan was burning under the Russian regime, Zoya's mother was working with RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. A secret society that undertook the task of making the world aware of what Afghan people are facing under Russian regime. How their beautiful country was being torn down a bit by bit every day.
One day, her father never came back, and soon after few days, her mother. Zoya was then taken by her grandmother to Pakistan so that they can be safe over there and Zoya can have a normal life as a child. But soon enough, Zoya grew up to follow her mother's footsteps. She rejoined RAWA and started undertaking missions to Afghanistan and refugee camp sites of Pakistan. And on such trips when a reader accompanies Zoya, chilling details of Taliban regime surface.
The barbaric assassinations, women begging and being beaten up in the streets, children amputated and left on the streets to die, the fundamentalism that was seeped deep into the veins of Afghanistan, houses were torn apart by bullets and bombs, women taken from their homes to be raped and tortured. Young Hazara boys being captured and molested by Taliban and the constant battle of hearts and soul. The fighters that were created to save Afghanistan were slowly destroying it and the civilians were being crushed under it.
On the other hand, Zoya was learning everything that she could to destroy the evil. An oath was taken in childhood, that she will relieve her country from the clutches of this demon, and she was now working towards it. Taking undercover trips to recruit new members for RAWA, trying to help as many people and children as possible, Zoya and her RAWA colleagues took various risks to make people aware globally about atrocities that take place in Afghanistan.
And somewhere in between, 9/11 happened. And another country decided to ravage war on Afghanistan and Taliban in 2001 under the name of Northern Alliance. Northern Alliance was created to save Afghanistan from the clutches of Taliban and its diktat. But as they say, when two elephants fight, the grass under them crushes to all extent. And that's exactly what happened with Afghan civilians. Now after millions murdered including the general public, where does Afghanistan stand today?
Zoya's story is a powerful book that vividly brings out the realities in a direct and unsentimental way. The facts are clear from the beginning, with a special emphasis on RAWA, an organization that is still trying to regain their lost homeland and it's glorious days. After reading the book I went through RAWA's site where I could see exemplary work being undertaken for Afghan children and youth. And then I came across the gallery section when goosebumps started coming. A bucketful of pictures showing the crude reality of Afghanistan, right from the Soviet Era.
We don't get to see the atrocities that happen all over the world through our own eyes, many of them hidden some way or the other. But realistic books like these show you a true picture. Many times my parents have asked me why do I read such heavy books, and I always tell them that even when I can't do anything about it, it is important to know what is happening. Zoya's story is a brilliant memoir of a girl who is just like me but stuck in a very opposite situation where she has lost everything to fundamentalism and is now in an alien country trying to fight for others, so that they don't face a fate like her. It's a must read.
July 20, 2011
I did like this book, although I found it horribly sad. I am also not one to be squeamish, but some of the violence described really made me cringe, especially knowing that it is very real. It was one of those books that when you put it down you thought, "I will never complain about anything in my life again."
Zoya is brave, humble, and an amazing woman.
Zoya is brave, humble, and an amazing woman.
November 6, 2014
داستانی مکرر از رنج ها و مشکلات زنان،البته لایه ی حفاظتی داستان بسیار پررنگ است چرا که راوی از اعضای جنبش زنان و نهضت آزادی زنان است و همواره به شیوه ی پنهانی زندگی کرده است. جزییات و تاریخ دقیق نیستند البته باید توجه رد داستان متعلق به پیش از حمله ی آمریکا و ایجاد افغانستان آزاد است. به هر روی همواره می گویند آدمیان در صدد اثات خویش به آرزو هایشان چنگ می زنند. تا به حال هر کتابی درباره زنان افغانستان خوانده ام سعی داشته اند تا باورهای کلیشه ای در مورد تحقیر و بدبختی و بی فرهنگی زنان افغان را پاک کرده و تصویرهایی زیبا، فرهنگی و مطتبق مدرنیسم ارایه بدهند.
September 17, 2013
This is an excellent memoir of Zoya. What surprised me was the way she narrated her thoughts, memories, hopes with such optimum control. Nowhere did I find her overwhelmed with emotions. Her resilience is perhaps resultant of her emotional strength. The descriptions of men undergo at the hands of the "men" (Talibans, Mujahideens etc) imparts lessons to endurance. The will to go on with hope is what this book is about..
August 26, 2024
داستان بسیار غم انگیز است. اساساً همه داستانهایی که مربوط به زنان افغانستان است برای من به دلیل همزاد پنداری و درد مشترکی که ما زنان ایران با آنها داریم بسیار تاسف بار و غم انگیز است. بارها و بارها در طول داستان برای سرنوشت زویا گریه کردم و چه بسا برای سرنوشت خودمان...
ای کاش آدمی وطنش را همچون بنفشهها میشد با خود ببرد هر کجا که خواست...
ای کاش آدمی وطنش را همچون بنفشهها میشد با خود ببرد هر کجا که خواست...
December 24, 2024
قصه پرغصه زویا (نام مستعار) دختر شجاع افغانستانی که مخفیانه در پاکستان با اندیشههای حکومت تئوکراتیک بنیادگرایان اسلامگرا میجنگد. دختری که پدر و مادرش را نیز در همین راه از دست داده...
داستان بهغایت غمانگیز و خواندنی است.
داستان بهغایت غمانگیز و خواندنی است.
April 16, 2014
Told from the first person point of view, Zoya's Story recounts the memoirs of a young woman growing up in Afghanistan, through the Russian invasion and withdrawal, the civil war, and the rise of the Taliban. The voice is that of the particular age and time; as a young child, we see Afghanistan through a child's eyes, the questions unanswered, the uncertainty. Should she take the chocolate from the Russian soldier or not? As she grows and changes, Afghanistan also changes, presenting new challenges, new questions. As a young woman, as an Afghan, living in Kabul, fleeing the country. Her parents influence, and how her thoughts of them change over time, growing into greater understanding, and eventually taking up her mother's cause. Joining RAWA, re-entering Afghanistan, working in refugee camps. The learning curves, the challenges, the changing landscape are all presented through her eyes. Although she seems fearless, underneath her determination is a sadness and a loyalty to her country that drives her. She does not accept the offer to be educated in Canada. Her home is Afghanistan, and she is a part of it, and it a part of her.
Through her eyes, we are allowed a glimpse of what life was like during the various stages of Afghanistan's wars. The atrocities, the cruelties. But also, the aspects of daily life that struck those who lived their most. The absence of kites from the sky. The tripping over a burqa. We are also allowed glimpses of bravery and courage. The woman in the market who unleashes on a young Taliban foot soldier, frightening him away. The actions of RAWA. And of sheer sadness and loss, over and over. Zoya's story, told the way it is, allows the reader into her life, sees the world through her eyes, the ups, the downs, the questions. The decisions she faces, at a very young age. Should she leave Afghanistan for her education? Should she live at the boarding school or with her grandmother? The learning process - she is not afraid to share her mistakes, such as when a RAWA leader is angered by the waste at the safehouse. Nor is she afraid to share what she cannot handle - her aversion to being witness to death or be in the presence of the dead. She does not play an idealized version of a heroine - afraid of nothing, able to handle anything. But rather, she shows us simply how life is. There are no pretentions or affectations. It just simply is.
For those who lose track of what is happening when, there is a timeline at the back of the book of major events. I appreciate how this book was meant to tell a story, not to incorporate it into what we now "know" or a historical context, etc, but simply, a story of Afghanistan through the eyes of a young woman. And it achieves that very well, if at times we ache to know what is happening back home, how grandmother is faring, the challenges faced by others in the circle, what happens to each of them. The lives around her are a snapshot that I found myself curious about. How their stories affected her's, and vice versa. But we only see that when she and they directly interact, without much more context than the immediate instance. But, at the risk of sounding repetitive, an outstanding insight into Afghan life, as told by a young woman who witnessed it and lived it. Her's is a story to be shared.
Through her eyes, we are allowed a glimpse of what life was like during the various stages of Afghanistan's wars. The atrocities, the cruelties. But also, the aspects of daily life that struck those who lived their most. The absence of kites from the sky. The tripping over a burqa. We are also allowed glimpses of bravery and courage. The woman in the market who unleashes on a young Taliban foot soldier, frightening him away. The actions of RAWA. And of sheer sadness and loss, over and over. Zoya's story, told the way it is, allows the reader into her life, sees the world through her eyes, the ups, the downs, the questions. The decisions she faces, at a very young age. Should she leave Afghanistan for her education? Should she live at the boarding school or with her grandmother? The learning process - she is not afraid to share her mistakes, such as when a RAWA leader is angered by the waste at the safehouse. Nor is she afraid to share what she cannot handle - her aversion to being witness to death or be in the presence of the dead. She does not play an idealized version of a heroine - afraid of nothing, able to handle anything. But rather, she shows us simply how life is. There are no pretentions or affectations. It just simply is.
For those who lose track of what is happening when, there is a timeline at the back of the book of major events. I appreciate how this book was meant to tell a story, not to incorporate it into what we now "know" or a historical context, etc, but simply, a story of Afghanistan through the eyes of a young woman. And it achieves that very well, if at times we ache to know what is happening back home, how grandmother is faring, the challenges faced by others in the circle, what happens to each of them. The lives around her are a snapshot that I found myself curious about. How their stories affected her's, and vice versa. But we only see that when she and they directly interact, without much more context than the immediate instance. But, at the risk of sounding repetitive, an outstanding insight into Afghan life, as told by a young woman who witnessed it and lived it. Her's is a story to be shared.
October 4, 2013
Zoya’s story is a memoir about a young woman from Afghanistan and her life growing up. As a child, she lived during the Russian invasion and when she was a teen the Taliban took over, meaning she now had to live by their rules. Zoya’s parents were both women’s rights activists and worked for the RAWA, which is the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. When she was young, her parents were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists, leaving her with her grandmother. At the age of 14, Zoya decided that she too, like her parents, would become a member of the RAWA and devote her life to helping women have equal rights. Throughout the book Zoya shares the experiences of her everyday life, sometimes horrifying and filled with violence. As women, Zoya would have to wear a gown covering every inch of her body so no skin would be shown, except for the eyes, called a burqua. Today, she still continues to share her story and fight for women’s equal rights.
This is a powerful story that helped me realize how fortunate I am to be able to be the person I want to be and to not have to hide behind a piece of clothing and constantly live in fear. Zoya risked her life every single day for what she believed in and wanted to make a difference in the world for all women. I admire her determination and strength as she went through these rough moments in her life. I encourage anyone who enjoys reading about the real-life experiences of determinate individuals to choose this book to take home next.
This is a powerful story that helped me realize how fortunate I am to be able to be the person I want to be and to not have to hide behind a piece of clothing and constantly live in fear. Zoya risked her life every single day for what she believed in and wanted to make a difference in the world for all women. I admire her determination and strength as she went through these rough moments in her life. I encourage anyone who enjoys reading about the real-life experiences of determinate individuals to choose this book to take home next.
October 14, 2016
Zoya’s Story is a powerful autobiography about a young Afghan woman who chooses to fight against the powers controlling her country. She was born and raised in Kabul, but when her parents were murdered by the Mujahideen, the group controlling Afghanistan, she fled with her grandmother to Pakistan. In Pakistan, she finished her schooling and joined the association that her mother had given her life for— RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. The book explains how Zoya dedicated her life to helping rid Afghanistan of the terrorist groups that control it.
One part of the story that caught my attention was how much Zoya cared for her country. She didn’t just blindly follow her country’s government, but she chose to speak out against it because she knew that what it was doing wasn’t good for her country. Even when the easiest path to take was to give up on it, she chose to keep fighting for Afghanistan.
Although the writing style was simple and choppy, I found that Zoya did an admirable job showing the trauma happening in Afghanistan. She shows us up-close the evils of the Taliban and the Mujahideen and the blood, sweat, and tears that go into fighting them.
This book would be helpful for students who want to read an interesting nonfiction book to fulfill a reading requirement or anybody that wants to be more informed on events in the middle east. Being a young Afghan herself, Zoya is much more relatable, and more informed, than many authors.
One part of the story that caught my attention was how much Zoya cared for her country. She didn’t just blindly follow her country’s government, but she chose to speak out against it because she knew that what it was doing wasn’t good for her country. Even when the easiest path to take was to give up on it, she chose to keep fighting for Afghanistan.
Although the writing style was simple and choppy, I found that Zoya did an admirable job showing the trauma happening in Afghanistan. She shows us up-close the evils of the Taliban and the Mujahideen and the blood, sweat, and tears that go into fighting them.
This book would be helpful for students who want to read an interesting nonfiction book to fulfill a reading requirement or anybody that wants to be more informed on events in the middle east. Being a young Afghan herself, Zoya is much more relatable, and more informed, than many authors.
October 13, 2016
Zoya's Story is a very good book and I would recommend it to everyone, even though there some parts of the book that you will think is very harsh, and there is a lot of violence in this book, but you will learn a lot of things on what was happening about the war in Afghanistan and what is happening to the children and everyone in Afghanistan. It is about a woman who is fighting for her rights with RAWA. Zoya's helps and goes around the refugee camps to help other people. During the taliban time every woman had a tough time because they took away all of women's rights. In the refugee camps Zoya's went around to help people who were dying. She also helps the orphaned kids that are brought to the camp.
November 29, 2017
داستان مبارزات زنان افغانستان برای بدست اوردن ابتدایی ترین حقوق ، داستان پر غصه ایست که تمامی ندارد، زویا زن مبارز و شجاعیست که همچون پدر و مادرش در این راه گام برمیدارد، زندگیش را وقف میکند و نمیترسد از انچه فکرش هم رعب اور است . همچون بسیاری از زنان شجاع و بی باک افغان، تمام تلاشش را میکند تا دنیای قشنگتری برای زنان سرزمینش بسازد، رویای کشور ازادش را در سر میپروراند و از رویایش دست نمیکشد . این کتاب همراه با مبارزات زویا مروری کلی به تاریخ افغانستان نیز دارد که کتاب را بسیار دلچسب تر میکند .
April 14, 2014
A really good inspiring book. :)
January 12, 2021
So simply written yet so powerful. That is how I would describe this book. It makes me applaud and envy her courage to be able to rise up against such powerful forces at an age where I am just doing my 9-5. The book validates the fact that how much education is so important to be able to have a conviction. It also talks volumes about Zoya's family - their purpose and the steps her Grandmother takes to ensure she has a good future. I really admire that part.
In the end, this book reminds me of the saying - "If you look at it from your eyes you would say you don't have a lot, but from someone else's it is their life dream"
In the end, this book reminds me of the saying - "If you look at it from your eyes you would say you don't have a lot, but from someone else's it is their life dream"
August 3, 2024
This will certainly be one of my top reads this year. An extreme sad yet inspiring story of a little girl growing up and joining RAWA. I'd honestly never heard of RAWA prior to reading this story, and I'm glad to see they're still running and making positive impacts on so many people.
November 22, 2022
really good, i like stories like these, give me another sight into someone else's life, and their stories. easy ready
January 13, 2025
Tragic, considering how much worse it now is for women in Afghanistan 22 years later. Gender apartheid to the maximum. 3.5 stars
November 19, 2024
Het is moeilijk om hier een review over te schrijven. Het is goed geschreven, maar soms wat rommelig. De hoofdstukken gaan niet altijd vloeiend in elkaar over. Het geweld is afschuwelijk. Dat kon ik soms niet in één keer lezen, wetende dat het een waargebeurd verhaal is en nog steeds gebeurt. Maar daarom moeten we het misschien juist wel lezen.
May 11, 2015
Hello my name is, well I can’t tell you that but everyone calls me Zoya. If I could use one phrase to sum up my life,it would be challenging. I’ve been through so much stuff, that people who think there life is awful is a paradise to me.
In my life I have done and seen many things. My story takes place in Afghanistan from 1979 to 2001. I’ve been all over Afghanistan, but Kabul is my most important place. As I was growing up in Kabul I would start going on trips with my mom. I knew her job was important, but little did I know what I was doing was extremely important and I would soon make important differences. The event that was most significant in my life was when I discovered what my mom was doing for work because I was soon to follow in her footsteps and make a change to my country.My dad worked to help make the country a better place, but my mom also worked for equal rights for women. After a while around the age of 11 my dad was killed by the government. Then a few month later my mother was taken away and killed by the government. They were both killed because of their work. RAWA the group my mom worked for. Took me and my grandmother to a different place since we were no longer safe in Kabul. They took me to a private school of 60 kids, that all had connections to RAWA and needed protection. They took my grandmother to a town nearby the school. When I finally became 16 me and some other girls decided it was time to go play our part in the war for equal rights and work for RAWA. They sent all of use of to a safe house to do paperwork. Also to interview people who the government has tortured in some way, and put it in the paper. As time goes on I try to save people and find people’s story’s. To keep that from ever happening or ever happening again. Sometimes I will help people film and get pictures of the horrific things the government has done to the country. As time goes on I am sent to a refugee camp to help people. I meet people that have gone through so much. I care for all the people especially one little boy that I treat as if I had my own kid. I also help women of all ages get a proper education. I would sometimes even go to the husband or the family if they were preventing that person to learn.
My advice is fight for what you think is right and don’t ever stop fighting for it. Thank you, for taking the time to let me explain my story to you. Thank you, I hope you all learned something from my events my in life.
In my life I have done and seen many things. My story takes place in Afghanistan from 1979 to 2001. I’ve been all over Afghanistan, but Kabul is my most important place. As I was growing up in Kabul I would start going on trips with my mom. I knew her job was important, but little did I know what I was doing was extremely important and I would soon make important differences. The event that was most significant in my life was when I discovered what my mom was doing for work because I was soon to follow in her footsteps and make a change to my country.My dad worked to help make the country a better place, but my mom also worked for equal rights for women. After a while around the age of 11 my dad was killed by the government. Then a few month later my mother was taken away and killed by the government. They were both killed because of their work. RAWA the group my mom worked for. Took me and my grandmother to a different place since we were no longer safe in Kabul. They took me to a private school of 60 kids, that all had connections to RAWA and needed protection. They took my grandmother to a town nearby the school. When I finally became 16 me and some other girls decided it was time to go play our part in the war for equal rights and work for RAWA. They sent all of use of to a safe house to do paperwork. Also to interview people who the government has tortured in some way, and put it in the paper. As time goes on I try to save people and find people’s story’s. To keep that from ever happening or ever happening again. Sometimes I will help people film and get pictures of the horrific things the government has done to the country. As time goes on I am sent to a refugee camp to help people. I meet people that have gone through so much. I care for all the people especially one little boy that I treat as if I had my own kid. I also help women of all ages get a proper education. I would sometimes even go to the husband or the family if they were preventing that person to learn.
My advice is fight for what you think is right and don’t ever stop fighting for it. Thank you, for taking the time to let me explain my story to you. Thank you, I hope you all learned something from my events my in life.
May 13, 2010
Now 23, Zoya was a child during the Russian invasion and a teen when the Taliban took power. The daughter of activists in Kabul, Zoya was raised by her grandmother after her parents disappeared. She now belongs to RAWA (see the review of Veiled Courage, above), a group her mother belonged to. Her reflections show the complex scars made by the tug of war between factional governments and tribal warlords, especially the effects of the Taliban.
Many of Zoya's stories (e.g., women only permitted to leave their homes wearing a burqa and accompanied by a male; women often suffering and dying for want of a female physician) are covered in Latifa's My Forbidden Face. Zoya tells of a society where kite flying, bright colors and even women's laughter is forbidden, and enforcers are often armed with Russian military leftovers or crude stones. Yet the Afghans Zoya speaks of remain rebellious and hopeful. She writes, "When I... saw Kabul in the daylight, even the mountains beyond the city which had seemed so peaceful to me when I was a child looked sad. But... that I had seen them again... made me feel stronger." Assigned by RAWA to live and work in a refugee camp near the Afghan-Pakistani border, Zoya now also travels abroad to raise funds for her organization. Her narrative voice is quiet and clear, making her recollections of the breathtaking violence she has witnessed nail-bitingly vivid and her descriptions of her struggle candid and poignant.
Zoya committed her life to the cause of women's rights in Afghanistan at 14, when both parents were assassinated for political activities. Her life story is provocative; Zoya's position is predictably anti-Taliban, yet subtly anti-American. The reader's Afghani pronunciations sound rich and authentic, but comprehensible. Her vocal characterizations vividly paint Afghani widows exhausted by a lifetime of cruelty, as well as idealistic young women energized by revolutionary ideas of democracy. The reader's crisp voice doesn't succumb to undue sentimentality or political posturing. Unfortunately, the epilogue interview with Zoya is of poor technical quality, but it creates an image of her huddled in a safehouse, seeking both refuge and publicity for the cause.
Many of Zoya's stories (e.g., women only permitted to leave their homes wearing a burqa and accompanied by a male; women often suffering and dying for want of a female physician) are covered in Latifa's My Forbidden Face. Zoya tells of a society where kite flying, bright colors and even women's laughter is forbidden, and enforcers are often armed with Russian military leftovers or crude stones. Yet the Afghans Zoya speaks of remain rebellious and hopeful. She writes, "When I... saw Kabul in the daylight, even the mountains beyond the city which had seemed so peaceful to me when I was a child looked sad. But... that I had seen them again... made me feel stronger." Assigned by RAWA to live and work in a refugee camp near the Afghan-Pakistani border, Zoya now also travels abroad to raise funds for her organization. Her narrative voice is quiet and clear, making her recollections of the breathtaking violence she has witnessed nail-bitingly vivid and her descriptions of her struggle candid and poignant.
Zoya committed her life to the cause of women's rights in Afghanistan at 14, when both parents were assassinated for political activities. Her life story is provocative; Zoya's position is predictably anti-Taliban, yet subtly anti-American. The reader's Afghani pronunciations sound rich and authentic, but comprehensible. Her vocal characterizations vividly paint Afghani widows exhausted by a lifetime of cruelty, as well as idealistic young women energized by revolutionary ideas of democracy. The reader's crisp voice doesn't succumb to undue sentimentality or political posturing. Unfortunately, the epilogue interview with Zoya is of poor technical quality, but it creates an image of her huddled in a safehouse, seeking both refuge and publicity for the cause.
February 27, 2017
The story about the lives of these amazing women truly inspire me. To know that they go through all these events that happen in their homeland and still decide to keep on doing what they do. No matter the danger of what they do is truly amazing. Their love for their country is real and they change lives weather through face to face or through this book. For me to actually meant them would be a honor and life changing experience.
February 28, 2017
I really enjoyed this book and the journey Zoya took us through. She did an okay job in describing what her life was like in Kabul and Pakistan. She could've been more descriptive but I think English not being her first language played a role in that. The sentences are shorter and she doesn't use very big words. All in all I thought the book was interesting and well organized.
February 28, 2017
Zoya's Story is a great book to read if you want to read more non-fiction books. The book takes you into detail about a normal life in Afghanistan. I would completely recommend this book to you, except for the fact that the book is more of an interview than an actual story.
August 22, 2009
Excellent memoir of Zoya, a woman born in Afghanistan to parents involved in a resistance group, RAWA, fighting for human rights (and especially women's rights). When her parents are murdered, Zoya and her grandmother escape to Pakistan where Zoya is allowed to go to a RAWA sponsored school for girls, which fosters independent thinking and is anti-fundamentalist islam.
As a very young adult Zoya leaves school to start her work and returns several times to Afghanistan smuggling in leaflets and encouraging a new group of women to resist the taliban and the ancient impositions on the sub-class of women imposed by cultural and religious zealots. Zoya explains in simple detail the difficulties (aside from abject humiliation) of wearing a burqa, of women being hostage in their own homes and of the idiocy of the thinking patterns of the Taliban, the uneducated, ignorant blood crazed men who were growing a second generation of clones.
Unfortunately, her story ends in early 2002 and so we don't learn what became of her, if and how her country changed after the US invasion and what her opinion is after all the upheaval. Reading about her work left me feeling like it was only a drop in a huge bucket of backwardness and evil and that it would have little effect on a people who seem to embrace their fundamentalism and blind obedience. Yes, she and her friends are modern and forward thinking - but I got no inkling of how they would possibly effect change.
As a very young adult Zoya leaves school to start her work and returns several times to Afghanistan smuggling in leaflets and encouraging a new group of women to resist the taliban and the ancient impositions on the sub-class of women imposed by cultural and religious zealots. Zoya explains in simple detail the difficulties (aside from abject humiliation) of wearing a burqa, of women being hostage in their own homes and of the idiocy of the thinking patterns of the Taliban, the uneducated, ignorant blood crazed men who were growing a second generation of clones.
Unfortunately, her story ends in early 2002 and so we don't learn what became of her, if and how her country changed after the US invasion and what her opinion is after all the upheaval. Reading about her work left me feeling like it was only a drop in a huge bucket of backwardness and evil and that it would have little effect on a people who seem to embrace their fundamentalism and blind obedience. Yes, she and her friends are modern and forward thinking - but I got no inkling of how they would possibly effect change.
February 27, 2017
This book did a great job showing what life was like for women in Afghanistan at the time. The only thing I wish was better was the end.
July 28, 2009
Zoya's story is a memoir about a woman in Afghanistan and her life from the 1970's until the present. It is mostly about her experience working for RAWA and living under the various oppressive political and religious groups running her country at the time, as well as the violence they created and the devastation they left.
This book was very simply written (short sentences, very little in the way of foreshadowing, and when done, obvious) and would be suitable for even those who are not hard core readers - it moves quickly and doesn't use fifty cent words. However, there is a lot of violence, including rape, and it does ask you to think about the issues going on in Afghanistan.
The most interesting (and perhaps political) part was where Zoya states that she doesn't like foreigners coming in and adopting all the orphaned children of her country. This was food for thought (she goes into it deeper) and asked the reader to think, rather than just narrating her life, like most of the rest of the book.
I'm glad I read it - I've been involved with the Vagina Monologues for many years, but was more interested in what the local charities were doing than what RAWA was all about. So I'm glad I finally learned what they do and how they do it. It made me more likely to donate to their cause, which I'm sure was part of the reason for the book.
This book was very simply written (short sentences, very little in the way of foreshadowing, and when done, obvious) and would be suitable for even those who are not hard core readers - it moves quickly and doesn't use fifty cent words. However, there is a lot of violence, including rape, and it does ask you to think about the issues going on in Afghanistan.
The most interesting (and perhaps political) part was where Zoya states that she doesn't like foreigners coming in and adopting all the orphaned children of her country. This was food for thought (she goes into it deeper) and asked the reader to think, rather than just narrating her life, like most of the rest of the book.
I'm glad I read it - I've been involved with the Vagina Monologues for many years, but was more interested in what the local charities were doing than what RAWA was all about. So I'm glad I finally learned what they do and how they do it. It made me more likely to donate to their cause, which I'm sure was part of the reason for the book.
March 18, 2013
Life was difficult for any women during the Taliban’s rule. Zoya grew up living under the Taliban rule. As a child her mother and father both worked to help advance women’s rights. They were both very careful with their work and they never said much about it. When Zoya was little and could get away with it she would help her mother inform other women about the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). When Zoya was barely a teenager both of her parents were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. After the death of both her parents both her and her grandmother left Kabul looking for somewhere they could feel safe. Despite her rough childhood knowing how her parents had died and what they were involved in she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps and also join the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She would risk her life every day so maybe one day all women could have equal rights. She constantly has to make trips between Afghanistan and Pakistan putting her own life in danger every time. “Zoya’s Story” is inspirational, it will make you realize how nice your life is and how lucky you are to have such a good life and not constantly living in fear and worrying about your own safety.
February 20, 2017
At only 23 Zoya has faced more than most people do in a lifetime. Zoya is born in Kabul but after the murder of her parents she fled with her Grandmother to Pakistan. In Pakistan Zoya when to a school funded by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization that challenged the edicts of the Taliban government. She went on to join the RAWA and help make a difference for her country. Zoya's open and honest description of events in Afghanistan and refugee camps were informative and heartbreaking. This is very well written story of one woman’s fight to make her world better for the next generation.
July 5, 2016
The book reads as if written for children (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit kept coming to mind), but is nonetheless very powerful and builds to the final chapters, which are both moving and inspirational. This young woman feels such total dedication to, and responsibility for, her country, her people, and, especially, women and children. She faces war with a commitment to education, second only to food and health as a basic requirement. She is remarkably brave and resilient. There's an interesting parallel here to her finding sisterhood and family (and becoming a parent by proxy) in the women's group and refugee camp where she works to the stories of soldiers finding brotherhood in the military. She, too, is just fresh from childhood (only 23); she is powerfully emotional, sometimes impetuous, filled with zeal and seeking meaning. She risks her life, sacrifices tremendously, and is faced with suffering, horror, constant fear, and hate. But she fights for her country with information, education, communication, nourishment, healthcare, hope, and love.
July 17, 2010
Can you imagine... living in a house with dried mud walls and being comfortable sharing your room with termites that you could hear munching hungrily? How about going to a public bath? Having only a lightbulb to keep yourself warm? Not going to school until age 14? Daily living with the danger of being whipped, raped, or killed? Witnessing a man's hands being cut off?
Zoya's story is laid out nicely; there are chapters that are separated by time frames (the first being the Russian occupation; the last being the attack on the U.S. and the events that followed). It's easy to understand, and interesting. I was fascinated by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), what their goals were, the courageous women (and men) who risked their lives to help others, and how RAWA put money into educating girls like Zoya as well as women of all ages who were refugees who did not know how to read or write. RAWA also put money into hospitals.
Zoya's story is laid out nicely; there are chapters that are separated by time frames (the first being the Russian occupation; the last being the attack on the U.S. and the events that followed). It's easy to understand, and interesting. I was fascinated by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), what their goals were, the courageous women (and men) who risked their lives to help others, and how RAWA put money into educating girls like Zoya as well as women of all ages who were refugees who did not know how to read or write. RAWA also put money into hospitals.
October 23, 2013
This book was a touching and heartfelt telling of the harsh life of women in Afghanistan. It gave a first account of the expression oppression and discrimination against women in Afghanistan. Zoya recounts her experiences of an oppressed life from as early as her childhood. In her twenty something years, she has seen more deaths, violence, and corruption than most people her age. Readers follow her journey as she and other women fight against the government oppressing not only women, but everyone. They try to expose the truth of the ruthless, tyrannical government to the world as the risk their own safety. I found this book very informative and touching at the same time. It was not just a book of facts and dates. The true story touched my heart and invoked emotions of horror, disbelief, and sorrow. It opened my eyes to a world unlike my own and made me realize there are others who a suffering far worse than I could imagine.
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