Customer Reviews

The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban

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

 

 

Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban, London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2002. x + 148. One map. Index. HQ 1735.6.S39 2002

This book covers a topic of much relevance and attention in the contemporary world: human rights, in particular those of women in Afghanistan. It examines the social and economic conditions faced by Afghani women, and Skaine implements a question and answer structure in order to delineate this. Furthermore, it touches upon the dire necessity for employment reform for women. With current employment restrictions upon women, families are starving, and children are growing up uneducated with a lack of teachers.
The book is extremely useful in that it does not focus solely upon the Taliban as the source for gender inequalities in Afghanistan. Rather it notes the many political motives behind it, as well as cultural and social pressures. Moreover, it succeeds in showing that it is not Islam that renders the oppression of women as justifiable. Instead, it shows the many intertwining forces within Afghani culture and politics that are in fact to blame.
It is for this reason that this book deserves much attention. The American media too often portrays, or simplifies, the oppression of Afghani women into a phenomenon stemming from the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalism. The fact that the chauvinistic mindset pervades, and has existed within, Afghani society is often overlooked. This creates a dangerous situation in which, the elimination of the Taliban may cause the world to assume the issue of female oppression is automatically solved. In addition, Skaine's writing style and structure make the book a clear and easy read.

Shirin Raza

For all those women who wants to know how its like living under the taliban gov't,this book is a must have. Here one can find the real situation of women living under the terror of the taliban,this book described the shocking truth of hell and one can never imagine how women in afghanistan were able to survived in this kind of narrow minded taliban gov't. Buy this book before they run out of print.

This book was very informative and shows things that are hard to bare.I read a lot of it but then layed it aside. I got sort of worn out and depressed. ;I will definetly go back and finish it.

This is a solid book about the lives of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban and under the lingering oppression of their culture. It reveals specific accounts of women who have lived under the Taliban.

The three best books I have read on Afghanistan are:
The Punishment of Virtue
The Bookseller of Kabul
Winter in Kabul

They are all by people who have lived and worked in Afghanistan. The books are the result of their journals and investigations. Read these three books and you understand the history, politics, corruption, and culture of Afghanistan.