English is not my first language but that didn't stop me from reading this great book. Actually, this book pushed me to search for more information and I read two more books about Afghanistan. I wanted to know about the country and people living there, more than I heard in the news or on TV. This book opened my eyes to see how complicated things are there. Everything could be solved easy if a bunch of people are not always hungry for more and more money.
If your country has not been attacked and in the war (like mine was 30 years ago), you simply can not understand the mess, fear and everything that goes with it. If war is not happening in your country, it is always somewhere far away where „someone is killing someone“. And if it is far enough, we have a privilege of not understanding and not worrying. We think we know something because we heard it in the news, we read in the newspaper, but actually we know little or nothing about what and why. We also can not grasp historical reasons, for example: why neighbors started hating each other.
Fariba's book was like watching a personal documentary movie. I am glad she shared her experiences and told us about her family's everyday life, emphasizing women's perspective. I compare that with my life and think how would I live under different circumstances.
I admire her bravery, traveling around, investigating and telling us her story. In a way she did it for me, too, because I am sure my feet will never touch Afghanistan land.
I truly hope that in some parallel Universe Afghanistan is a happy place, where trees bend under fruits and birds chirp in the morning, kids are playing and there are no land mines everywhere.
A great book to read.