A Woman's View of Afghanistan

"Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep", by Siba Shakib

You would think with a title like that, this would be a thoroughly depressing read, but it is very readable and surprisingly uplifting. It's subtitled "A Woman's Story of Courage, Struggle amd Determination" and, although it purports to be the story of Shirin-Gol, an Afghan woman living an unbelievably harsh existence, it is actually written by an Iranian woman based, I imagine, on a composite of different women she has met in many visits to the country as a maker of documentaries.
Shirin-Gol is born, one of 11 children, in a mud hut in a small village. When she is two, her mother gives birth to twin boys and from then on it is Shirin-Gol's job to look after them. When the village is bombed by the Russians, the father and older brothers head off to the mountains to fight for the Mujahadeen and the mother and younger children move to Kabul. To her horror, Shirin-Gol is forced to attend school but it is there that she learns that, even as a girl, she has some worth. However, her hope of education and a better life soon end when one of her brothers' friends appears in Kabul, claiming her as his wife.
The skill of the book is to show what life is like in Afghanistan, in the years leading up to 9-11, through the eyes of a child, then a woman, from such a simple background. She doesn't understand who is fighting who, or why, and she doesn't complain about her lot. She just makes the most of things as she wanders from place to place, looking for somewhere she and her family can be safe and suffering the most unbelievable hardships along the way. It's uplifting because of her sheer strength and ability to survive against all the odds and it gives you an excellent insight into what really goes on in the country, from opium farming, to the Taliban, to the powerful warlords.
Well worth reading!