I've never been good at understanding the politics of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq.
Over the last ten years, I've learned about Iran and Iraq, but the other two major states in the region remained a patchwork of news reports in my mind until I read the personal story of Fawzia Koofi.
Letters to my Daughters is the Afghani title, but in the US it's The Favored Daughter: One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
I heard Fawzia speak in Telluride at the Mountainfilm Festival in May, and her words were riveting.
After I bought her book, a visiting friend read it in a few days--she couldn't put it down.
Once I finally had time to read it, I too raced through the chapters, in which her mother, her brother, other friends, and finally her husband die as a result of civil war and Taliban control in Afghanistan. Now I have a framework in which to place the various news articles I read.
An unwanted seventh child in a poor section of Afghanistan grows up to become a member of Parliament and is even spoken of as a possible presidential candidate--what a story.
To get the flavor of the book, listen to this NPR report:
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/22/147060923/a-favored-daughter-fights-for-afghan-women
Over the last ten years, I've learned about Iran and Iraq, but the other two major states in the region remained a patchwork of news reports in my mind until I read the personal story of Fawzia Koofi.
Letters to my Daughters is the Afghani title, but in the US it's The Favored Daughter: One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
I heard Fawzia speak in Telluride at the Mountainfilm Festival in May, and her words were riveting.
After I bought her book, a visiting friend read it in a few days--she couldn't put it down.
Once I finally had time to read it, I too raced through the chapters, in which her mother, her brother, other friends, and finally her husband die as a result of civil war and Taliban control in Afghanistan. Now I have a framework in which to place the various news articles I read.
An unwanted seventh child in a poor section of Afghanistan grows up to become a member of Parliament and is even spoken of as a possible presidential candidate--what a story.
To get the flavor of the book, listen to this NPR report:
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/22/147060923/a-favored-daughter-fights-for-afghan-women
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