The Sewing Circles of Herat
A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan
by Christina Lamb
Overview
From the Publisher
Twenty-one-year-old Christina Lamb left suburban England for Peshawar on the frontier of the Afghan war. Captivated, she spent two years tracking the final stages of the mujaheddin victory over the Soviets, as Afghan friends smuggled her in and out of their country in a variety of guises.
Returning to Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Center to report for Britain's Sunday Telegraph, Lamb discovered the people no one else had written about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war. Among them, the brave women writers of Herat who risked their lives to carry on a literary tradition under the guise of sewing circles; the princess whose palace was surrounded by tanks on the eve of her wedding; the artist who painted out all the people in his works to prevent them from being destroyed by the Taliban; and Khalil Ahmed Hassani, a former Taliban torturer who admitted to breaking the spines of men and then making them stand on their heads.
Christina Lamb's evocative reporting brings to life these stories. Her unique perspective on Afghanistan and deep passion for the people she writes about make this the definitive account of the tragic plight of a proud nation.
My thoughts
You may wonder why I would give this book three stars when I have invoked Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50? OK, I admit that I'm not going to finish reading this book but it's hardly the fault of the author, Christina Lamb. She is a very good writer and this book showcases her talent very well. It's just that, well, maybe the timing is wrong for me. I can't read about the abuse of human beings without feeling helpless. I can't read the stories of torture without becoming angry. I can't read about her dangerous travels without becoming worried for her safety. I just can't read this book. Not now anyway.
Ironically, all the things I dislike about the books written by reporters embedded in the military are missing in this book. This book is written exactly as I think a book of this subject matter should be written. Christina Lamb is courageous, adventurous, compassionate, and intelligent. She paints vivid pictures and she behaves and reacts in a manner that I would expect. Everything about this book points to exactly the kind of book I like to read.
Except I can't.
But please don't let that stop you. If you can handle the excerpt below, then I highly recommend this book. It is insightful and informative, and Christina Lamb is a gifted correspondent and writer.
Difficult Passage
Everyone talked of the chains across the roads, five on the main street of Kandahar, fifty just on the two-hour sixty-five-mile stretch between Spin Boldak and Kandahar, each manned by different warlards demanding money.
Then there were the rapes. No one slept safely in their homes as young girls and boys were kidnapped and violated, causing many parents to stop sending them to school. According to Taliban legend, the whole movement was sparked off in the spring of 1994 when a commander paraded on his tank around town a young boy that he had taken as his bride after a dispute with another commander who also wanted to sodomise the boy. Another version was that a commander had abducted two young sisters from the village of Sanghisar where Mullah Omar preached at the small local mosque, taken them to his military camp and repeatedly gang-raped them. Mullah Omar was said to have gathered thirty men and attacked, hanging the commander from the barrel of his own tank.
