Customer Reviews

Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At a time when Americans are living war and its aftermath in Afghanistan as a combo of reality-TV show and second-tier video game, the book's powerful text and visuals will remind all of us that these are real people and real lives that were damaged and destroyed. But the most powerful message is probably one of hope; the author's main achievement is to exhibit the unimaginable strength in all the so-called victims, which may well help them be the winners after all...

This book brillantly tells the other side of the story. The photos illustrates the changing times of Kabul and the repression that these poor women have had to and continue to suffer. This is the best book that I have read on the conflict and the taliban regimes abuse of the citizens of Afghanistan.

The photography is stunning and the stories are so moving...a very informative read.

This book would be a superb first read for anyone wanting to understand the hardships women experienced under the Taliban. It compares women's lives before and after the Taliban came to power. The women to tell their own stories whenever possible, and photographs reinforce the main ideas. The major thrust of this book is that these women should not be forgotten again...

I lived in Kabul in the late 1970's. Although there were women who went about unveiled, attended university,and appeared to be living a life of equality to men, they were just a tiny fraction of the Kabul elite and in no way represented the lives of the vast majority of Afghan women. Afghanistan is a wonderful country that I dearly love, but it serves no purpose to pretend that they were once had a highly westernized society, where women had unlimited opportunities. Let Afghan women in Afghanistan define what their future is to be, not Western feminists who think that they know what it should be.

this book is a great and easy read, i finished it in a few hrs. its full of short important stories of many women and girls young and old from afghanistan. the stories are a then and now compilation as the author has talked to the people in the book twice over a number of yrs. to see where theyve come in that amount of time, and how theyve endured life and living under the talibans oppression of women. the stories will astound you, the pictures are compelling and the read is fast yet powerful

The first thing I had a problem with, right off the bat, was the cover and the title. There is too much focus on the burqa and not enough on real issues. I flipped to the back cover to see the author's credentials and was not surprised to find that the author is really a photographer. I think she would have done better not to have included superficial history and just focused on the women. The history in the book only goes as far as: before, during, and after the Taliban. Everything written is predictable. Before Taliban-good, during-bad, after-good. The history of Afghanistan is, of course, much more complicated than any one regime and I think it is better NOT to have a book like this, than have it. It takes the focus off of other issues and lays the blame on the Taliban and their major offense as the burqa.

I gave it one star, though, because of the black and white pictures. The book should have been strictly a pictoral view of these women's lives.

I think this is yet another misrepresentation of the situation of Afghan women by someone who dropped into Afghanistan for five minutes and decided to make some cash off this bizarre fascination with the 'veiled women of Afghanistan'. From the 'Before the Taliban' photo of women in mini-skirts I realised that I would hate this book because I have been in Afghanistan since 1995 and I never saw a mini-skirt - MISREPRESENTATION OF THE FACTS - how long are you going to let people print and sell sentimental rubbish about Afghan women? I can write the type of rubbish in these books in my sleep but I wouldn't be able to face myself in the mirror because I would know that I misrepresented the truth and I have some morality unlike these 'intrepid journalists' who pitch up for a while interview a few women and suddenly understand everything. Have a little decency and stop with this Veiled this and Veiled that crap. Let's have some realistic analysis of the situation or are your readers to thick to handle anything that isn't like Hello magazine?