Customer Reviews

Searching for Saleem: An Afghan Woman's Odyssey

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This is a gripping story of one woman's attempt to cope with a world that suddenly and ominously changed around her. She and her family were living in Kabul when a coup de etat by a group of Afghan Communists plunged the country into civil war. The immediate consequnce for her was the disappearance of her husband. Along with that the social world she had known was dramatically changed. New and strange demands were placed upon her in her university job. Ordinary social and commercial concourse in the city broke down as military checkpoints interrupted traffic. Reliable information on what was happening became impossible to come by. Rumors abounded. Her children brought home communist propaganda. As Mrs. Gauhari searched for her husband friends and colleagues in official places told contrary and implausible stories about his whereabouts; some of her relatives withdrew support; mysterious visitors for unknown reasons offered empty promises of help. The book could be read as a woman's experience in a male-dominated world. But it is much more: this is what it is like to be plunged without warning into civil war. The presumptions of ordinary life give way to the confusion, suspicion, and terror resulting from the suddend explosion of violence among neighbors and associates. In that sense this is one woman's account of life in the midst of a ferocious civil war, an experience that many peoples around the world have had in the last decade: in Rwanda and Burundi, for instance, where repeated massacres have taken hundreds of thousands of lives; in Yugoslavia where Serb, Croat, Bosnian Muslims, and Albanians have sought to cleanse each other from their respective enclaves; in Sri Lanka where Tamil separatists and Ceylonese nationalists have murdered each other for a generation; in Chechnya where a war of secession has destroyed the country.

"Searching for Saleem" is one of a very few books I've found about Afghani women. It takes up where "Three Women of Herat" by Veronica Doubleday leaves off. The writing is very good although not great, but it's not really the quality of the writing that makes this book so important--it's the account of life in Afghanistan. I find it amazing that there are so few books about Afghanistan! And most are for children.

After the September 11, 2001 bombings in the United States by radical Muslim terrorists, I wanted to know more about the people of Afghanistan. Morrocco was my only experience traveling in a Muslim state, and I found that Afghanistan is radically different. This book provides a rare look into the experience of one Afghani woman who seems atypical of many of the women in the country but has the facility with English and the education to provide all of us with a glimpse into a country that's playing a significant part in our lives and that seems to be a place where few Americans have lived or traveled.

I have read this book last year and now I read it for the second time. I ejoyed it more this time. It is a wonderful book based on events after Communism take over of Afghanistan and it brings sense to our present day events. In the Forword section of the book, Nancy Dupree indicates that ..." years of discord have stretched taut the fabric of this society (Afghanistan) and left many lingering effects. National traits once respected, honored hallmarks of Afghan character, are in jeopardy. Tolerence for others. Forthrightness. Aversion to fanatics. Respect for women. Loyalty to colleagues and classmates. Dislike for ostentation. Commiment to academic freedom. All has been compromised.
Thankfully, the spirit of courageues determination, amply evident in the pages that follow, is still strong. There seems no reason to doubt, therefore, the reconstruction can be astnishingly rapid."