A searingly honest, profoundly courageous memoir of one fearless woman’s fight for her homeland.
A politician and activist recounts the personal and political effects of the rise and fall of the Taliban in her native country of Afghanistan.
Born in 1994, Ghafari was “raised during the Taliban’s first regime” and “came of age in the era following 2001, as a supposedly democratic government was being propped up by Western armies, aid organisations, and billions of dollars.” Although she loved going to school, the Taliban’s increasing presence in Paktia, the province in the Tora Bora mountains where her father was working, made it dangerous for girls to receive an education. It was so dangerous, in fact, that her father forbade her from attending school, a directive she ignored until she found herself in the path of a suicide bomber while sneaking to school against her father’s orders. Despite this traumatizing experience, which also included a skull injury caused by shrapnel from the explosion, she continued to secretly attend school. She was only able to finish her schooling through a scholarship to Chandigarh, India, where, after intense study, she learned enough to return to Afghanistan and pass a rigorous examination process that resulted in her appointment as the mayor of Wardak. In that role, Ghafari diligently battled corruption until her father’s murder made her fear for her family’s safety and forced her to transfer to the defense ministry in Kabul. Soon after, the Taliban invaded, forcing Ghafari and her loved ones to flee the country. This harrowing journey plunged her into depression but also spurred her into activism. The author tells her inspiring life story with sincerity and passion, providing a nuanced and, at times, horrifying glimpse into Afghanistan’s devastating history. The last two chapters are particularly gripping, as Ghafari chronicles the physical and emotional chaos that enveloped the country after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
A searingly honest, profoundly courageous memoir of one fearless woman’s fight for her homeland.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5417-0263-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.
An Egyptian Canadian journalist writes searchingly of this time of war.
“Rules, conventions, morals, reality itself: all exist so long as their existence is convenient to the preservation of power.” So writes El Akkad, who goes on to state that one of the demands of modern power is that those subject to it must imagine that some group of people somewhere are not fully human. El Akkad’s pointed example is Gaza, the current destruction of which, he writes, is causing millions of people around the world to examine the supposedly rules-governed, democratic West and declare, “I want nothing to do with this.” El Akkad, author of the novel American War (2017), discerns hypocrisy and racism in the West’s defense of Ukraine and what he views as indifference toward the Palestinian people. No stranger to war zones himself—El Akkad was a correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq—he writes with grim matter-of-factness about murdered children, famine, and the deliberate targeting of civilians. With no love for Zionism lost, he offers an equally harsh critique of Hamas, yet another one of the “entities obsessed with violence as an ethos, brutal in their treatment of minority groups who in their view should not exist, and self-decreed to be the true protectors of an entire religion.” Taking a global view, El Akkad, who lives in the U.S., finds almost every government and society wanting, and not least those, he says, that turn away and pretend not to know, behavior that we’ve seen before and that, in the spirit of his title, will one day be explained away until, in the end, it comes down to “a quiet unheard reckoning in the winter of life between the one who said nothing, did nothing, and their own soul.”
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593804148
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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