Before the Taliban

the long version

"The women of Afghanistan, living in a country long plagued by war and displacement, have also had to struggle with a form of cultural and religious oppression, which makes life immeasurably more difficult. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism, citing medieval Sharia Islamic law as its authority, severely curtailed women's right to full participation in the social, economic, cultural and political life of the country." "Mary Smith offers an insight into the lives of these women before and after Taliban's rise to power. Working in Afghanistan with a small health organisation, often spending months alone in remote villages, we meet the women who became her friends and share their hopes, their laughter and their tears. Many of the women she met worked outside their homes in the cities and villages, demonstrably pushing beyond the boundaries of their traditional cultural roles." "The courage these women show in reaching out to grasp hold of threads of personal freedom is extraordinary. Knowing that the Taliban will sweep away all that they have struggled to gain makes their story all the more poignant."--BOOK JACKET.