by Latifa, 2001
Sept. 27, 1996, Taliban take over Kabul, Afghanistan. No longer can women go to school or work – must cover themselves entirely. Also, no music, etc. No whistling, no TV, no pets, no kites, no weddings, not allowed to laugh in streets, no photos.
“One thing and one thing only, unites Afghans in spite of their ethnic divisions: resistance against all foreign invaders, be they British, Pakistani, Arab – or Soviet, of course.”
She remains in her apartment for basically 4 entire years, from age 16 to 20, while the Taliban make everyone miserable, publicly whipping, beating, and executing people in the beloved soccer stadium. They even destroyed a centuries-old statue – the Buddha of Bamiyan – “Colossi,” from 5th century AD – that is after they destroyed all art in the museum of Kabul and the frescoes of Behzad.
At first Latifa is depressed (no duh!) but then her friend convinced her to start an underground school for neighborhood children. That helps her keep going despite how dangerous it is.
Women are not allowed to work so there are no longer any female doctors. Women cannot be seen by a male doctor. So there is no health care for women any longer. They are forced to marry at age 14. Latifa’s mom is a former nurse/doctor and treats women in the apt. clandestinely. Until she no longer can because no medicine and no way to get any.
Finally, her mom and dad sneak out with her (leaving a sister and brother at home in Kabul) to France to do an interview with Elle magazine.
That is when this book is published (2001) and shortly before 9-11.
Osama bin Laden, the “rich Saudi Arabian,” bank-rolled the Taliban in Afghanistan. They believe most of the Taliban are from Pakistan. Afghanis hate Pakistan!
The Taliban are bad, bad, bad!
As I was reading this, we (CIA and Navy seals) got (killed) Osama bin Laden on 5/1/11 in Pakistan in a fortressed mansion.
A good timeline of Afghanistan from 1919 – Dec. 22, 2001 in the back of the book.
We helped the “Northern Alliance” topple the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif on 11-9-01. The Taliban abandon Kabul on 11-13-01 “overnight.” Mullah Omar is the leader of the Taliban.
Here is an article from The Denver Post on May 7, 2011:
Death may change dynamic in Afghanistan – Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
The killing of Osama bin Laden could be a game changer for the U.S. military in Afghanistan by splitting the Taliban from the al-Qaeda terrorist network, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday during a stop at Seymour Air Force Base. “I think it’s too early to make a judgment, in terms of the impact inside Afghanistan, but I think in six months or so, we’ll know,” he said.
“We’ll have to see what that relationship looks like,” Gates said of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in a post-bin Laden world. “Bin Laden and (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar had a very close personal relationship. There are others in the Taliban that felt betrayed by al-Qaeda–that it was because of al-Qaeda’s attack on the United States that the Taliban got thrown out of Afghanistan.”
Denver Post Wire Services