Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom

Rating:
Summary: Sensitive, Shocking and Should be Required Reading
Review: do not pass this one by.... you will NOT regret it. its captivating and devastating. its a MUST read!

Rating:
Summary: JUST READ IT ( I cant even explain it but READ IT)
Review: do not pass this one by.... you will NOT regret it. its captivating and devastating. its a MUST read!

Rating:
Summary: COMPELLING, CONSUMING AND EDUCATIONAL
Review: I attend a college with a very strong emphasis on women's rights so I picked up this book with a great deal of interest. I learned so much about the history of the women's rights movement in Afghanistan. I also learned about other human rights issues, such as what happens to persecuted people seeking asylum in the US. There's a really great "How to help" section if you want to get involved with these issues. But the best part of the book was how incredibly suspenseful it was. I was totally consumed by it. It's one of the best books I've seen for years and everyone who's read it has totally loved it.

Rating:
Summary: A Timely Topic, A Powerful and Exciting Book
Review: I picked up this book because I have great respect for Batya Swift Yasgur not because I was interested in the subject. I planned to skim it. I started reading at 9 pm and finished it in the wee hours of the next day. To my surprise it was a page turner. It was also well written which is often not the case with "as told to books" and the subject became fascinating to me.
I learned a great deal and only wish that she had another book on the shelves!

Rating:
Summary: Surprise!!!
Review: I picked up this book because I have great respect for Batya Swift Yasgur not because I was interested in the subject. I planned to skim it. I started reading at 9 pm and finished it in the wee hours of the next day. To my surprise it was a page turner. It was also well written which is often not the case with "as told to books" and the subject became fascinating to me.
I learned a great deal and only wish that she had another book on the shelves!

Rating:
Summary: A Timely Topic, A Powerful and Exciting Book
Review: I saw the Court-TV production of CHASING FREEDOM this past Monday (Jan 19). Appropriately, it aired on Martin Luther King Day. It was the story of an Afghan women who fled to the US after escaping horrible treatment by the Taliban. When she came to the US, she was put into detention. It was a great movie and it really brought to life events in Afghanistan and also in US detention centers. The story told in BEHIND THE BURQA is very similar. I can't believe our country is still imprisoning people fleeing persecution. This book (BEHIND THE BURQA) was an amazing experience to read. The suspense was incredible, and I learned about detention in a very vivid way. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to find out more about this very important issue, and to everyone who wants to read a great book!!

Rating:
Summary: Reading this book was both a pleasure and a responsibility.
Review: On behalf of these sisters from Afghanistan, Batya Swift Yasgur writes with a brilliant pen, a compassionate heart, and the desire to facilitate desperately needed social change. Each in turn, the sisters speak of what life was like in Afghanistan, both before and after the institution of the Taliban regime: before, their worries were few and their joys plentiful; after, they were subjugated, oppressed, bullied, beaten. They speak of their friends and family members killed at the hands of a cruel government, of women who took their lives to escape, of not being able to walk outdoors for fear of punishment or even death, of being attacked in their own home. I cried as I read, and my heart broke for them. Reading this book was both a pleasure and a responsibility. After what these women have survived, after what Afghan women are still experiencing, we owe it to them to listen.

Rating:
Summary: Sensitive, Shocking and Should be Required Reading
Review: These two sisters lend their voice as a voice of a people, a voice of a nation of women who still struggle to be heard. Not only is this a book of truths, it is a book of horrors at last unveiled. For women living in oppression in any nation, from the United States to Afghanistan to Nigeria, one can only hope that Ms. Yasgur's ability to listen will open the eyes and ears of all humanity. If we did, the reperession and brutality endured by the women in this work--and of women everywhere-- could possibly become a thing of the past.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful, Informative and very Current
Review: This book is a powerful account of two brave sisters and their fight for human rights in a fundamentalist society, both for themselves and for other Afghan women. The two sisters hold divergent views of Islam and between them, create a balanced perspective that helped me sort out the true religion from the corruption of the religion by fanatics. As a feminist with a strong interest in world religions, I felt I got a fair insight into the many ways one can regard Islam. It's rare for a book to combine chair-gripping suspense and important new insights and I highly recommend BEHIND THE BURQA to people of both genders and all religious backgrounds and affiliations.

Rating:
Summary: sulima and hala will amaze you with their stories!!!
Review: this is an absolute must read for anyone who is interested in human rights, womens rights, humanity, suppression, faith, courage, and biographies. this book applies to anyone and everyone as we are all human beings and many of us do not know the oppression and suffering of many people outside our own little world. the book is divided in two. the first half is sulimas story, the second half is halas story and both will have you reading straight through without pause. through all the horrific experiences they have been through, in the end they find some peace after long lives of suffering and oppression, whether at the hands of family, society, or culture. a wonderful example of how to keep pushing and not give up. i abolutely recommend this to all who will be appalled at what these two ladies have gone through. this book will make you want to take action, and has recommmendations at the back for ways of doing so.