In Afghanistan, as you might expect, the battle of Maiwand became a thrilling symbol of national pride, famous for an apocryphal anecdote: in the heat of the bloodshed, the story goes, as the Afghan line was starting to give way, a seventeen-year-old woman named Malalai grabbed the bloodied banner of her people, raised it high, and shamed the men into rallying. Malalai was killed, but the charge she sparked succeeded, and Malalai became Afghanistan’s iconic heroine, its Joan of Arc. Later, the first girl’s school in Afghanistan was named after her.
