Customer Reviews

The Sleeping Buddha: The Story of Afghanistan Through the Eyes of One Family

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This book by Hamida Ghafour describes what happened when a female Muslim journalist who had been born in Afghanistan but lived most of her life in exile in Canada returned to her native country after the Taliban had been driven from power and Hamid Karzai installed as the country's leader.

The author's great grandfather had brought Islam to the infidels in Kafiristan in the eastern part of Afghanistan. Her grandmother was a poet and social reformer. Her great-uncle was the chairman of the commission that drafted the 1964 Constitution. Her grandfather was the head of intelligence services in the Ministry of Defence. Her parents met at Kabul University in the 1970s. But as conditions became more oppressive after the Soviet invasion, her parents left the country and settled in Canada.

The Afghanistan to which the author returned was a more backward place than the one she left as a child. The Taliban and their religious police, who had banned kite flying and whipped women for wearing lipstick or walking outside without a male relative, were now gone but their influence remained. Women were supposed to be kept indoors and illiterate. The educated classes had long since fled, and the country was being governed by illiterate warlords.

It is a sad and wistful memoir, which helps to clarify the history of Afghanistan and the reasons why the Coalition forces have been encountering such enormous difficulties in achieving their goals and establishing peace. I highly recommend it.

Beautifully written. Intelligent. A must read for anyone who wants to truly understand Afghanistan, its people and politics.