RAG Demo

Tag: Taliban

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns

    Mariam is born outside marriage near Herat in the 1960s, the daughter of a wealthy man who visits but will not acknowledge her publicly. At fifteen she is married off to Rasheed, a much older shoemaker in Kabul, and her life narrows to his house and his moods as she fails to give him the son he wants.

    Years later Laila, a bright girl raised by a bookish father who believes in educating daughters, grows up on the same street, in love with her childhood friend Tariq. The civil war that follows the Soviet withdrawal tears her life apart and brings her into Rasheed's household. The two women begin as rivals but slowly form a bond that sustains them through the rise of the Taliban.

    Hosseini shifts focus from fathers and sons, the heart of The Kite Runner, to mothers, daughters and the experience of Afghan women under successive regimes. The novel traces history from the monarchy to the post-2001 period through the domestic lives of its heroines. It is often praised for its emotional force and its portrait of endurance and quiet courage.

    Book details

    AuthorKhaled Hosseini
    First published2007
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreHistorical fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)372
    SettingHerat and Kabul, Afghanistan, 1960s to early 2000s

    Themes

    • Women's lives under oppression
    • Female friendship
    • Domestic abuse
    • War
    • Sacrifice

    Who should read it

    Readers who were moved by The Kite Runner or want a novel about women's resilience in wartime.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Kite Runner
    • The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
    • A Fine Balance

  • I Am Malala

    Malala Yousafzai wrote this memoir with British journalist Christina Lamb a year after a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in October 2012. She was fifteen. The book begins with that day and then steps back to tell the story of her family and of the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan.

    Her father, Ziauddin, ran a school and was an outspoken advocate for education, and Malala grew up in his classrooms. As the Pakistani Taliban gained control of Swat, banning girls from school, blowing up buildings and broadcasting threats over the radio, she began writing an anonymous diary for the BBC Urdu service and giving interviews. The book describes the army offensive that displaced her family and the uneasy return home.

    Later chapters cover her treatment in Birmingham, England, and her new life there. Alongside the personal story she explains Pashtun culture, Pakistani politics and her Muslim faith. In 2014 she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The memoir is also a portrait of a close father-daughter relationship and a reminder of how ordinary family life continued under fear and military conflict.

    Book details

    AuthorMalala Yousafzai
    First published2013
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreMemoir
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)327
    SettingSwat Valley, Pakistan, and Birmingham, England

    Themes

    • Girls' education
    • Courage
    • Extremism
    • Family
    • Activism

    Who should read it

    Young readers and adults who want to understand the fight for girls' education and life under extremist rule.

    If you liked this, try

    • The Diary of a Young Girl
    • Long Walk to Freedom
    • Educated