Customer Reviews

Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the angriest book I've read about women in Islamic countries since Geraldine Brooks' "Nine Parts of Desire." Author Ann Jones, who has written before of violence against women, finds no reason to applaud the so-called liberation of women in post-Taliban Afghanistan, where traditional ultraconservative attitudes toward women (which she points out have no basis in Islam itself) continue to prevail. Considered property to be bought and sold, they have lives that often lead to child marriages, domestic violence, prison, murder, and suicide. A woman at odds with either her husband's or her father's family, the author argues, is as good as dead. She often holds accountable the often glamorized mujahadin, who fought the Soviets for a decade with arms from the West and then, after driving them out, went on to destroy much of what was left of the country with a long civil war.

While a quick summary of this book may make it sound extremist and politically radical, the evidence that Jones offers to support her claims quickly dismisses doubt. Her visits to women's prisons and hospital wards and her analysis of the judicial system that doesn't acknowledge the concept of women's rights reveal in story after story how women's lives are circumscribed by a rigidly enforced patriarchy. While the appearances of social change - women and girls going to schools, freedom from wearing burqas - are trumpeted in the western news media, Jones' experience indicates otherwise.

Meanwhile, as she describes in the closing section of the book, the international aid efforts create their own high-priced counterproductivity. A reader is likely to be left with illusions about the West's beneficence totally upended, with statistics that show how 86% of U.S. aid is spent on military contracts and expensive living allowances for American aid workers living abroad. The lion's share of this financial outpouring goes to a handful of Washington's favorite vendors, often without competitive bidding. Finally, and amazingly, only $8.00 of the average American's yearly federal taxes actually go to real foreign aid, much of which is spent on projects of questionable value - like the mass production of textbooks originally developed for use in Taliban schools.

Definitely worth reading as an alternative to the official view from Washington and the news media. Also recommended: Sarah Chayes' "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban"

As a women's health physician who tried for two years to improve the high rates of maternal and child mortality in Afghanistan, a feminist from a neighboring country, and a fluent Dari speaker, I am very invested in the lives of Afghan women in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Ann Jones' beautifully written Kabul in Winter offers a bleak but insightful view of women's rights in modern Kabul. Although she does not hide her disdain for President Bush and his policies, Jones offers a balanced, anecdote-driven picture of what Afghanistan's capital is like today, especially for its most vulnerable citizens (prisoners, street workers, suicide attempters, victims of violence, child brides, and students among others). Through her own humanitarian work, she accesses intimate Afghan women's stories that most non-Dari-speaking expatriates in this highly segregated society will never be able to hear. As an expert on violence against women, Jones does not hesitate to address the most horrifying cases of human rights abuses against Afghan women and girls. Though she often criticizes the Western-funded NGOs (mine included), she does so fairly and with a mountain of well-researched evidence to support her claims. Kabul in Winter will often make you want to weep and sometimes it will make you laugh, but you will come away with an accurate picture of what is happening in post-9/11 Kabul. This book is a must read for any humanitarian aid worker who lives in Afghanistan and beyond. For those hopeful about the changes following the US-led war on Afghanistan, this book will be a disappointment, but you will not come away unmoved. For those who enjoyed Rory Stewart's The Places In Between, Ann Jones' Kabul in Winter offers a perfect complement-- an up-close and indepth study of how Afghanistan's women have fared since the Taliban were thrown out of power by the West.

This book is definitely NOT for the faint of heart, or for true-believers in America-the-good or West-good, East-bad. Jones takes on institutions that have not only failed Afghanistan and failed women, but whose Machievelian hand can be seen in the deterioration of governments all over the globe whose first concern is not America's. She's done her homework, indeed, put her life on the line to do it, and this volume, if you have the courage to read it, will enlighten you in the most unexpected ways. I learned a lot from this most fascinating and readable book.

Im interning in Kabul this summer. My family is Pakistani and I spent last summer working in Karachi so I have SOME knowledge of life in an Islamic country. But Im not stupid-- I realize that my three months in Kabul will be VERY complicated, and, as such, Im trying to learn as much about Afghanistan, its people, its culture, its history and its languages, as I can. I understand that NOTHING can prepare me appropriately for the experience, but Im trying my best anyway. I have literally read EVERY book that pops up on Amazon.com when you search "Kabul," and Ive loved NOTHING more than Ann Jones' Kabul in Winter. Im not one to write reviews, in fact, this is the first one Ive ever written. I dont feel qualified to recommend books, Im no scholar. But I cant help it this time around.

Ahmed Rashid, Sarah Chayes, Asne Sierstad, theyre great. But the information which Jones provides in Kabul in Winter, and the manner in which she does it, is UNMATCHED by any of her colleagues. She's sarcastic, witty, sympathetic, logical and harsh all at the same time. But what I love most about the book is the fact that Jones actually MAKES you take responsibility, there's no way to weasel out of it. I know that when I do get to Kabul this summer, Ill be MUCH less likely to engage in the drinking, partying and general wasting of time in which Jones said most Westerners in Afghanistan lose themselves.

Please read this book. Honestly.

Ann Jones takes up the human side of the war in Afghanistan. She deftly intertwines history with her own experience teaching English in Kabul and writes a book that is both gripping and profoundly moving. It also tackles the vexing issue of humanitarian aid and why sometimes our best efforts don't succeed. Winter in Kabul is a brave book.

Ann Jones' book provideds a clear, unrelenting description of the results of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. If you think there is still some honorable way out that will save our American souls, this book will break your heart. The author's 3 year stint working with the people of Kabul provides unimpeachable evidence of the folly of thinking military actions and the alliances they require can bring development or peace.

Jones gives a wonderfully clear account of Afghanistan's recent history, an account of women's changing (not always for the better) status, and the role of NGOs and those who want to help--especially in the area of education.

I have read a dozen recent books on Afghanistan. This one is a must read.

Ann Jones empowers the reader by educating our minds and opening our hearts.
The author is a master at research, detail, and literary portraiture. I was compelled
to read this book because pretending its content doesn't exist is impossible.
Kabul in Winter is essential reading for anyone who thinks of themselves as a humanitarian.

Okay, we never found the monster Osama Bin Laden, but look at what we did accomplish. We whupped the Taliban, chased down Al Qaeda, and brought Truth, Justice and The American Way to the humble and grateful Afghanis. Oh, and we liberated the women folk too, while we were at it. People Magazine ran stories about women with nothing but one rat-tailed comb and a lot of grit opening up beauty salons. Men were free to fly kites, and everyone could listen to music and enjoy the harmless pastimes forbidden by their cruel opressors. With the U.S. running things, women could toss aside the burkhas and veils. Everyone was going to be free, equal and happy. After the pain and anger of the September 11th tragedy, we were back. Mission accomplished. So why is this Ann Jones stirring up trouble, looking around and telling us different. Why is she interviewing Afghani men and women? We already know they're better off now. Ms. Jones takes a deep look at what the overthrow of the Taliban means to the average Afghani, nd to the women in particular. What she sees is disquieting and discomfiting because it takes us beyond the spin. Her first-hand descriptions and conversations with Afghani women and men reveal not Kabul a la Disney, but one more Potemkin village. The rosy pictures of happy independent women heading to shops, offices or university classrooms are as phony as the doctored Iraqi photos of crowds straining to tear down Saddam's statue. "Men are first," is one of the first words we hear from an Afghani woman in the book's early pages. "Kabul in Winter" indicates that not much has changed except for the tune played in the American press. The destruction and the fighting continue...but now, America isn't paying much attention. After all, we already won. Who needs to hear about the Taliban regrouping? Or that women are slapped around by their husbands, their voices are suppressed, their actions monitored, just like in the bad old Taliban days. For those who want a dose of reality, Jones delivers. For those who want feel good infotainment, there's always Fox News and the talking heads who never get nearer to Afghanistan than a Pentagon press release.

This book about contemporary life in Afghanistan after the American-led bombing and alleged "defeat" of the Taliban may delight some readers, especially those highly critical of the Bush administration and its adventures into "regime-change," while it may incense other readers who are supportive of the President in his drive to combat international terrorism. I say this because there is little doubt about where author Ann Jones, an award-winning journalist and women's rights activist, stands regarding George Bush's presidency, programs, policies, and politics. She is decisively negative. One doesn't get past the first page without realizing this. A New Yorker herself, she saw the President come to that city shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center. In her own words, "I'd seen George W. Bush come to town to strut and bluster among the ruins, and as I watched him lug the stunned country into violence, my sorrow turned to anger and a bone-deep disappointment that hasn't left me yet." I do appreciate a writer who puts his or her personal bias right upfront because it makes it easier for me to evaluate what the writer has to say from that point forward.

The reader of "Kabul in Winter" immediately has some insight into the author's perspective and that's important, especially so since Jones is mostly relating personal experiences within the context of her journey in Afghanistan. And, like all personal experiences, there is always an idiosyncratic component which is subject to interpretation. Readers should be aware that Jones is on the "Left" side of the political spectrum and views the situations and events in the world today through a pair of "modern liberal" spectacles. This does not mean she should be ignored by those with more conservative leanings or who are on the "Right" side of the political spectrum. Indeed, I think it's important for those who may disagree with her political leanings to read what she has to say.

The modern world is a very complex place -- socially, politically, economically -- contrary to those who tend to think in terms of only "black or white," "right or wrong," or some other such dichotomous category. In my opinion, both the Left and the Right on the political spectrum are too often guilty of framing everything as if one side or the other possessed a morally superior position. Jones does, I think, maintain a judicious attitude toward what she experienced in Afghanistan, even though some readers might find fault with her criticism of how things are actually working out in that country as a result of the "aid" which it is getting from the United States and other countries. The one reviewer who claims she has "a nostalgia for the old Soviet occupation of Afghanistan" is being unfair, I think, because all she did say was that some things were better under the Soviet occupation "compared" to a previous situation. This may be indicative of that "black or white" sort of thinking we often see from ideological partisans.

"Kabul in Winter" does provide an interesting short history of the past conflicts in Afghanistan, much of which I had not known and I'm sure most American readers will find enlightening. One of the problems which American leaders seem to always suffer from when it comes to international affairs is ignorance of the sociopolitical and cultural-religious context of the countries which they decide to "help," or bring about "regime change" in, or, please excuse me here, "invade." Such is the case with Afghanistan and, unfortunately, also with Iraq, where obviously American troops were not met with flowers and songs of thanks for liberation and where we are now entrenched in a sectarian conflict with no end in sight. Similarly in Afghanistan; any sort of "democratic" government in that nation is, I'm afraid, far off in the future -- if at all. Sorry to say, there is no such thing as "instant-democracy," although American political leaders would wish otherwise. "Rose-colored" spectacles seem to be passed out to everyone in any American presidential administration, Republican or Democrat.

As I said above, and now particularly in reference to Afghanistan, the modern world is a very complex place. As most American readers of this book will soon realize, the stories that the author details within the three venues she concentrates on (the streets, the prisons, the schools) are anything but simple revelations of ordinary and normal life-experiences. It is important for American readers to realize that most of them have never experienced situations such as Jones narrates. For instance, the attitude toward and treatment of women in Afghanistan (and in the Islamic religion in general) would not be tolerated in the United States, even though our country's record in the past regarding this matter has not been exactly exemplary.

The final word on Afghanistan -- or Iraq, for that matter -- is not yet in. In fact, it will probably be years before anyone can adequately evaluate the success of either situation. Ann Jones, however, does provide us with some insights into the current situation in Afghanistan, as she experienced it, and, even though some of us may take issue with some of her analyses and criticisms, she deserves to be heard. This is not a scholarly work but a personal reflection, although Jones does provide some detailed documentation in the notes at the end of her book. Furthermore, I think it is important to keep in mind that even those with whom we may disagree about specific political programs and policies may be right some of the time. What Jones experienced in her Afghanistan adventure are her "facts" and I am not prepared to deny them to her. The "interpretation" of those facts within the larger context of our current war on terrorism is another thing. But we would be doing a disservice to ourselves if we did not listen to what Jones has to say.