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In Veiled Threat, journalist Sally Armstrong describes women's struggle to survive in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power and dropped a veil over their bodies, voices, and lives. Armstrong introduces us to women like the remarkable Sima Samar--a doctor and activist who courageously subverted the edicts of the Taliban to open a medical clinic and set up clandestine schools for girls: "Once, the family of a woman who had been in labour for three days sent a message to Sima and begged her to come. She walked three hours to get there. On another occasion, she saddled up a horse and rode twelve hours over the steep, rock-strewn mountains to treat a child who was sick with pneumonia."
Accusing the Taliban and other fundamentalist regimes of distorting the teachings of the Koran for their own ideological purposes, Armstrong challenges the world's watchdogs to come to the aid of Afghan women. Her portrait is both a cautionary tale and a celebration of women carrying on under the most trying of circumstances. --Carolyn Leitch --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Editor-in-chief of the Canadian magazine Homemaker's, Armstrong went to Afghanistan in 1997 to search for Dr. Sima Samar, a remarkable woman famous for working underground against the Taliban by keeping schools and medical clinics open for women. After bringing this story to Canadian readers, Armstrong remained an active advocate; she's now a UNICEF representative to Afghanistan. Assuming readers know little about Afghan history, Islamic theology or the recent geopolitical alignments that enabled the Taliban's to assume power, Armstrong gives clear, readable backgrounds on these essentials. She lets Afghan women themselves describe the horrors of Taliban misogynistic rule. For Armstrong, neither Islam nor Afghan tradition were the problem; most Taliban edicts had little to do with the Koran or Islamic tradition, even if they were called "fundamentalist." Their campaign against women was a tactic in their grab for power, says Armstrong, one that played well to their largely illiterate male following. The September 11 attacks and the war on the Taliban and al Qaida have made it possible for women to leave purdah, return from refugee camps and work openly for the rebuilding of Afghan society. As Dr. Samar, now the chair of Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission, makes clear, restoring Afghan women's full civil and economic rights won't be simple. But books like this will go far to mobilize whatever international resources she finds herself needing. Armstrong walks a political tightrope in spots (some may object to the very mention of female genital mutilation), but she's taken on a righteous cause and does it justice. 20 b&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping From Beginning to End,
By LDA3 (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan (Hardcover)
Despite the fact that I consider myself aware of what's going on in the world, I was quite unaware of the horrific, long-standing human right's violations being committed against women in Afghanistan. I believe that I was just as ignorant about these facts as the rest of the United States until 9/11 happened, and until I read Sally Armstrong's book. She takes the reader into an unknown world, devastated by war; destitute from harsh living conditions; and broken by poverty & prejudice. She meticulously explains the warped, extreme fundamentalist views regarding women and religion in the country, and citing so many appalling facts that it leaves you sick to your stomach. As she conducts countless interviews with female citizens of the country, describing the intolerable conditions they have had to live with because of the militant political structure the Taliban has instituted, she shows the reader how this inflexible; obstinate; narrow-minded; and discriminatory way of thinking has infiltrated the entire Middle East and it's effects on the Islamic faith. This book is a must read for any and everyone. It doesn't matter if you don't know a thing about the Middle East, or if you know a lot about it. This book is about more that just politics and war, it's about the rights and privileges that people deserve, and it will change the way you look at everything.
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