Memoir books set in Afghanistan (10)
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1.
Dancing in the mosque by Homeira Qaderi EN
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
An exquisite and inspiring memoir about one mother's unimaginable choice in the face of oppression and abuse in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
2.
We Are Still Here : Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to Be Heard by Nahid Shahalimi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A collection of first-hand accounts from courageous Afghan women who refuse to be silenced in the face of the Taliban, to be published for the first anniversary of the US leaving Afghanistan. After decades of significant progress, the prospects of women and girls in Afghanistan are once again dependent on radical Islamists who reject gender equality. When the United States announced the end of their twenty-year occupation and the Taliban seized control of the country on August 15th, 2021, so began a steep regression of social, political, and economic freedoms for women in the country. But just... continue
3.
Defiant Dreams : The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education by Sola Mahfouz, Malaina Kapoor EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life. “Stories like this inspire me. Seeing the way people like Sola Mahfouz think about the world reinforces my optimism about the future.”―BILL GATES Sola Mahfouz was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1996, the year the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backward on women’s rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and forcing them... continue
4.
My Forbidden Face : Growing Up Under the Taliban : a Young Woman's Story by Latifa, Chékéba Hachemi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Born into a middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980, Latifa had a conventional childhood. Then, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. And from that moment, Latifa, just sixteen, became a prisoner in her own home. The simplest and most basic freedoms were forbidden. She was forced to put on a chadri, the state-mandated uniform that covered her entire body. Disbelief at having to hide herself was soon replaced by fear, the fear of being whipped or stoned like women she'd seen. My Forbidden Face provides a moving and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful hon... continue
5.
A Fort of Nine Towers : An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A carpet designer in Kabul describes his childhood before the Mujahedin took over, his family's struggle for survival after fleeing their home and how his secret carpet factory provided both employment and education for neighborhood girls.
6.
The Lightless Sky : A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World by Gulwali Passarlay EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival—of a twelve-year-old boy’s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West—that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time. “To risk my life had to mean something. Otherwise what was it all for?” In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali’s mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the twelve-year-old across eight countries, from ... continue
7.
Above Us the Milky Way by Fowzia Karimi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
Debut novel about a young family forced to flee their war-ravaged homeland, forced to leave behind everything & everyone beloved & familiar. Old family photographs & lush watercolor paintings based on medieval illuminated manuscripts interweave with remembrances, ghost stories/stories of the war dead, & fairy tales to conjure a story of war, of emigration & immigration, the remarkable human capacity to experience love & wonder amidst destruction & loss, & how to create beauty out of horror.
8.
I Am a Bacha Posh : My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan by Ukmina Manoori EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A 2015 Amelia Bloomer List Selection "You will be a son, my daughter." With these stunning words Ukmina learned that she was to spend her childhood as a boy. In Afghanistan there is a widespread practice of girls dressing as boys to play the role of a son. These children are called bacha posh: literally "girls dressed as boys." This practice offers families the freedom to allow their child to shop and work—and in some cases, it saves them from the disgrace of not having a male heir. But in adolescence, religion restores the natural law. The girls must marry, give birth, and give up their freed... continue
9.
The Favored Daughter : One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future by Fawzia Koofi, Nadene Ghouri EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
As America prepares to draw down its forces in Afghanistan, this story of survival and hope from a voice of the country's most oppressed group could not be more timely. Born to the second of her father's seven wives in rural Afghanistan, Fawzia Koofi's mother—who had hoped for a son—left her to die in the sun after birth. But despite a childhood of abuse and deprivation in a notoriously sexist society, she rose above her fate to become the first female Speaker of Parliament. Along the way, she faced the murders of her father, brother, and husband, and numerous attempts on her life. Here, she s... continue
10.
Letters to My Daughters by Fawzia Koofi EN
Country: Asia / Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
In the vein of Infidel comes this spellbinding memoir of survival and courage from Afghanistan's most popular female politician. On the day Fawzia Koofi was born, her mother set her under the blazing Afghan sun to die. She was the nineteenth child of twenty-three in a family with seven wives, and her mother did not want another daughter. Despite severe burns that lasted into her teenage years, Fawzia survived and became the favourite child. In Letters to My Daughters , Fawzia tells her remarkable life story. Fawzia 's father was an incorruptible politician strongly attached to Afghan tradition... continue