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The Sewing Circles of Herat : A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan
The Sewing Circles of Herat A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan
Author: Christina Lamb
A gold-inscribed invitation to a wedding in a foreign land led Christina Lamb at the age of twenty-one to leave suburban England for Peshawar on the frontier of the Afghan war. Like the Englishmen in the Great Game of the nineteenth century, she was captivated by the Afghans she met. For two years she tracked the final stages of the mujaheddi...  more » victory over the Soviets as Afghan friends smuggled her in and out of their country in a variety of guises -- from burqa-clad wife to Kandahari boy -- travelling by foot, on donkeys or hidden under the floor of an ambulance.Among those friends was Abdul Haq, the recently executed Kabul commander, and Hamid Karzai, the new president of Afghanistan, who took Lamb to his hometown of Kandahar, where they rode around on the backs of motorbikes belonging to a group of fighters known as the Mullahs Front. It was these figures who went on to become founding members of the Taliban.Long haunted by her experiences in Afghanistan, Lamb returned there after the attacks on the World Trade Center to find out what had become of the people and places that had marked her life as a young graduate, and to report for Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.She was now seeing the land anew, through the eyes of a mother and an experienced foreign correspondent who has lived in Africa, South America, Portugal and the United States. Lamb's journey brought her in touch with the people no one else has written about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war.Among them are the brave women writers of Herat who risked their lives to carry on the literary tradition of this ancient Persian city under the guise of sewing circles; the princess whose palace was surrounded by tanks on the eve of her wedding; the artist who painted out all the people in his works to prevent their being destroyed by the Taliban; and Khalil Ahmed Hassani, a former Taliban torturer who admits to breaking the spines of men then making them stand on their heads.Christina Lamb's evocative reporting brings to life these stories. Her unique perspective on Afghanistan and deep passion for the people she writes about makes this the definitive account of the tragic plight of a proud nation.
ISBN-13: 9780060505264
ISBN-10: 0060505265
Publication Date: 12/1/2002
Pages: 368
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 1
3.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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Top Member Book Reviews

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Helpful Score: 2
An interesting account of the British journalist who visited Afghanistan during Soviet occupation and then shortly after the American invasion. Excellent overview of Afghani history and culture with personal touches. I loved the pictures and the letters that the author received from a 20-something Afghani woman expressing her fears and thoughts on Afghanistan under the Taliban and her hope for a better future.
Read All 2 Book Reviews of "The Sewing Circles of Herat A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan"


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