Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future

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Summary: the view of afghan women
Review: I recently read this book and was most impressed by the honesty of many of the Afghan women, as well as the essays which clarified what the Q'uran says about women. As far as Islam goes, it is very important to make a distinction between theology and culture. Many of the things that that non-Muslims view as unacceptable (with respect to women)in the Muslim world are based on cultural practices not the Q'uran. Afghan women have been clear in this book in stating that although they want the support of women worldwide, that they must be the ones to determine the direction of the women's movement in Afghanistan. It is critical to the sucess of such a movement that it develop within a cultural and religious framework that is appropriate to them. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kabul from 1977-79 and hold both Afghanistan and it's people close to my heart. We must support their efforts toward rebuilding their country, but remember, it is their country!
Caryn Giles Lawson

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Summary: Sisters unite!
Review: If the women in Afghanistan are not going to live free in the near future, every one of us is guilty! If girls are dying because they are girls WE have blood on our hands - every single one of us! We can stop it, if we unite and if every one of us is AWARE and WILLING to put an end to this! No woman in the western world can tell HER daughters...... I did not know! The book WOMEN FOR AFGHAN WOMEN is a brutal documentary but written with a tender heart and endless love. Read, learn & act! The strongest wapon against OPPRESSION is: EDUCATION!... go and spread the word!

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Summary: Wet Burqa Contest
Review: Well, you won't be seeing one of those in Kabul anytime soon (see childish review title, above). Which is, in a sense, one of the scant but meaningful advantages enjoyed by women in conservative societies, as the voices in this insightful book make abundantly clear. If 'liberation' means appearing on the cover of "Maxim" clad in a thin veneer of Silly String, many would think twice about buying into the modernity that we're peddling. This insightful book elicited a passel of new notions in me about the need for enlightened relativism when comparing modern and traditional societies. All of which were moderated abruptly when I shared them with my wife - who herself was recently 'liberated' from the beaches of Punta Del Este, where the garb of most Maxim girls would be dismissed as laughably prim. Her predictable response was to christen me 'Mullah Charles' and to withhold her affections from me for a week - a modern Lysistrada, albeit one without a Peloponnesian War to stop. My bumbling attempt at atonement - trying to assert my modernity by boorishly commenting that author Mehta looked "rather hot" in her inset photo - only proved to both of us that I have plenty to learn about women from my own hemisphere, never mind the other one.