Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I picked this book up thisafternoon and read it this evening - what a vivid picture of life for women (and men) under the Taliban. The overview of the history of Afghanistan threaded through places the book firmly in context while the oppression women experienced under that regime is unimaginable to us in the West. A must read for every woman who values her freedom. I would also recommend you read Princess by Jean Sasson
Rating: 
Summary: A Book of Courage Among Atrocities
Review: I would like everyone who believes in liberty and freedom to read this book. It is a personal story of what happens when people distort religion and turn it into a means of oppression and cruelty and it is important to note the distinction. The events taking place under the rule of the Taliban I have read about. However, reading about it from this young woman's personal experience made even a more powerful impression on me. One cannot dismiss the cruel acts of the Taliban by saying that they are only human and humans are not perfect. The cruelty that took place there is on the level of the Nazis. Examples, beating a young boy to death in front of his mother because he watched a video. And of course the extreme cruelty towards women making them wear clothes that are so confining and hard to see out of that they actually can get run over. Talking about cutting women's fingers off for wearing nail polish and the massive rapes and torture of women. I could go on further but it is best to read the book. When women are denied medical care, this alone is horrible. It was very liberating to read about the author's escape from that barbaric regime. Thank God I have not experienced anything like that and for those who have, I feel deep sorrow.
This is not an ordinary book to look at and say, well it could have been written with more literary skill etc. To do that is to miss the point.
Rating: 
Summary: There are always 2 sides
Review: I'm sorry but there are many things I disagree with in this book. Yes, I'm not saying many women went through these acts, etc. But many others didn't, as well as I'm not saying the Taliban are perfect because they are human, and no human is perfect. But many women who have spoken out against the Taliban, either had or has little understand of Islam, or just basically want to live and act like a non-Muslim woman. The girl goes on to write how she couldn't leave her home with out a mahram [male relative], but fales to mention that even after the Taliban took over, there still where many dangers for women, they where beining kidnapped, raped, etc. And protection was and still is needed for them. She went on to say how women couldn't talk to non-mahram [non-relative] men. But again she fales to mention, that this wasn't something brought on by the Taliban, but Allag [God] has fobade the communication of the sexes unless for marriage or out a necessity. There is no dating or mixing in Islam. She said how all jobs for remove were banned, but yet many women who were doctors,etc. where allowed to work, but sadly due to the economic unstability of Afghanistan, they were not paid. And this also went for male doctors. Women were even allowed to school their daughters at home, I could go on about the lies and the sided stories about the time the Taliban wgere in power, but this is not the place. This book was not good, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. And always look to both sides of the story for the truth, because it's in between.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely gripping: NEVER FORGET what women endured
Review: Latifa's nonfictional My Forbidden Face is absolutely DEVASTATING -- to defenders of the Taliban's rule and those who somehow still insist that women weren't systematically mentally and physically brutalized under their thankfully vanished rule. This is a TRUE motivational book: thoughtful -- and compassionate -- people of ALL religions will want to ensure that human beings are never EVER treated like this again. Are there REALLY people who consider human life as cheap as a crow's feather (or considerably cheaper)? The events of the past year aside, just Read My Forbidden Face. Your answer (y-e-s) is HERE. This book is written by Latifa (a pen name), a 22-year-old woman who details how her life was "confiscated" from her by the Taliban in Kabul when she was 16. This compelling and super fast-read (and no, the fact it's a translation does not diminish its impact one iota) raises several issues: the way women were treated under Taliban rule, the low value placed on human life, how countries become pawns of other countries -- and how books are so much more effective than film. t.v. or cable in communicating a real life horror story through the eyes...and thoughts...of a young dismayed woman. Bit by bit she recounts how, as a teen indeed influenced by Western culture's music and cultural figures (she had a poster of Brook Shields on her wall.) her world was turned upside down when the Taliban, taking advantage of warring factions and supported by Pakistani intelligence and the United States, hijacked her country. Banks closed. Radios and t.v.s were literally shattered to smithereens by the new fundamentalist rulers. Tangles of once-innocent cassette tape became bittersweet symbols, she writes, "hanging in the trees, swaying in the autumn breeze like sinister wreaths." Spies were everywhere. A Taliban-supporting mother went crazy after her son was brutally was beaten to death by the new regime's thugs for his heinous crime -- playing a VCR. Teenage boys were forced to slap other teen boys as punishment or face their own, even more brutal punishment. Talifa recounts this systematically and you get a sinking feeling as she goes on about women being beaten for wearing white. Women being executed in the soccer stadium for going out without a man or not dressing in "chandra" (covering her arms and face) clothing, the wearing of which she likens to a mobile "jail cell." Official mutilations of the disobedient, for even tiny infractions, were routine. A highly poignant scene recounts how she released her beloved canary, figuring it would be outlawed -- as it indeed was, along with tea kettles and any form of whistling. Even kids playthings were taboo:"Poor little boys, and poor Afghanistan!" she writes. " Those kites once looks so lovely in our skies.''
A key triumph is how she describes her sense of loss and grief over the fact that under the Taliban the only future she faced was being a virtual house prisoner. As a girl, she
dreamed of being journalist, but the regime banned careers or education for women. A highly effective passage recounts precisely what it was like for a young woman to stay
home, supremely bored, looking at every nook and cranny, and having to "wander around my home like a convict taking a tour of her cell...This time they're really killing us, killing
all girls and women. They're killing us stealthily, in silence..'' In the end, the gang rapes of women, the executions, the daily horrors manifested by the draconian Taliban decrees did not terrorize her as much as spark courageous defiance, so she got involved in an underground school to give youngster a chance at a non-Taliban education. When this book was published she was living in exile in France. More gripping than any cable or television special, more dramatic than any movie, this quick-but-vital read is a MUST. Read it, gift it, pass it along...and never forget it as more daily events unfold.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth About the Taliban
Review: Letifa is a valuable eye-witness to the terror the Taliban visited upon it's own people. With the help of Pakistan, these fanatics pursued a policy of anhilation of the Afghani people, particulary, the women. These are the same evil people who bombed our World Trade Center on September 11th. They are truly anti-life. Letifa's book gives me yet another reason to feel good about my country's role in freeing Afghanistan from the evil Taliban. Letifa and her family are all Muslem but they found the Taliban version of "Islam" unrecognizable. It is to religion what cancer is to healthy cells. May it be erradicated!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty well written.
Review: Nice book, well written. shows the real face behind the talibans and portrays life of afghani women from another perspective besides the media.
Rating:
Summary: compelling and eye opening, you will read right through this
Review: no matter how many women or groups write or put out books or readings on afghanistan and the talibans rule, every story is compelling and mind blowing, as well as individual and important to read and be enlightened to. this is personal story of one girls situation living under the taliban. the stories of what she has gone through will plague you long after reading and will make you want to help. for those who are not aware of what has happened in afhganistan to women under taliban regime, pick this up and read it. id be surprised if it did not enlighten you in a major way
Rating:
Summary: Reality check
Review: Stories like this, especially written by the victim, are truly eye openers. Reading this young girl's story brought a new fear to me...
Rating: 
Summary: FALLS SHORT, BUT STILL WORTH READING
Review: The publication of MY HIDDEN FACE: GROWING UP UNDER THE TALIBAN is timely due to the recent interest in Middle East issues. The treatment of women in this region of the world is astounding to some and horrifying to others [I put myself in the last category]. Women living under Taliban rule are the worldwide epitome of individuals stripped of all their humanitarian rights. Forced to remain in their homes unless escorted by a husband, brother, or father outside Afghani women were virtually cut off from society and forced to withdraw themselves for their own safety and survival. If they do venture outside they are banned from revealing their face in public women must wear the hooded garment often known as a burqa or chadri. The cover of this book sends shivers down my spine each time I view at it as a representation of society gone wrong. To add insult to injury this is done in the name of religion. Indeed this issue is fascinating and deserves much attention even after the Taliban was defeated. I looked forward to reading Latifa's account of growing up female under Taliban rule (as the subtitle revealed). However, I felt a little disappointed when most of her recollections dealt with her life in Kabul *before* Taliban rule. Her observations of how her life has changed since she was banned from education and work were excellent but short. Rather, she delves into her past and recounts how she lived under Soviet rule and subsequent tribal leaders. To read about the earlier sections of her life was good but I feel that the title of this book is misleading. In addition, chapters toward the conclusion of the book were confusing and convoluted as she jumped from one time period to another without any context or explanation. It appeared that she was hurrying to finish the remaining chapters in a mad dash. Regardless, MY FORBIDDEN FACE is a worthwhile read and suggested to all those who are interested. Latifa succeeds in putting a [human] perspective to this horrifying phenomenon. Hopefully history will not repeat.
Rating:
Summary: Jarring in a good way and a bad way
Review: The stories and anecdotes in this book are certainly gripping. Other reviewers have revealed many of its highlights. However, a better book would certainly have resulted if a more even flow to the story was maintained. It is simply too jarring for the reader to be jumping back and forth in time so frequently. I ended up without a clear chronology of any of the events, just a vague idea. However, the overarching message is quite consistent - that Afghanistan was in a state of constant war for decades, that the Taliban really were just thugs..., and that women suffered greatly there.
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