Women of the Afghan War

by Deborah Ellis

This is an account of the Afghan War and its tragic aftermath as told by the women who were caught up in it and became its innocent victims. The voices in this oral history will provide personal snapshots to the news reports of the Taliban activities now coming out of Afghanistan. These accounts provide an historical background to the growth of the Taliban, and reveal circumstances of the daily life of the women who must survive in this very closed society.

Through the medium of oral history, this book brings to light the stories of the women who have suffered the consequences of the Afghan War and whose lives and whose daughter's lives have been changed forever. Through the voices of the Soviet women who supported their soldiers on Afghan soil, and the voices of the Afghan women scattered by circumstance around the globe, the last Cold War battle between the superpowers takes on a very personal tone. Policy decisions issued from on high became the rockets that destroyed these women physically, mentally, and emotionally. Children were killed or maimed and homes and families destroyed. Ultimately, these women were forced to flee or become invisible within their homeland. The Taliban militia rose from the dust of this war and by government decree reduced even the most educated and influential of the women to non-person status.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Deborah Ellis has achieved international acclaim with her courageous and dramatic books that give Western readers a glimpse into the plight of children in developing countries.

She has won the Governor General's Award, Sweden's Peter Pan Prize, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the University of California's Middle East Book Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award.

A long-time feminist and anti-war activist, she is best known for The Breadwinner Trilogy, which has been published around the world in seventeen languages, with more than a million dollars in royalties donated to Street Kids International and to Women for Women, an organization that supports health and education projects in Afghanistan. In 2006, Deb was named to the Order of Ontario.

Reviews

[Farzana Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not especially scholarly book, but it is transparent about that. Simply & informally written…but the proportion written written by the author is actually quite small. Ellis is more of an interviewer, transcriber, and compiler. This is essentially a book of witness, transmitting stories of women (and a few men) in Russia and Pakistan, many of them with close ties still in Afghanistan. The structure is loose, a bit scattered, without a clear progression or organizational strategy, and often little context is given for the stories given in the voices of various women. However, the insights about the lives of Afghan women through 20 years of war are important, and give a hauntingly clear sense of their suffering as well as their strength. I especially appreciated a section featuring four Afghan women writers, including two poets.