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A review by fizreads
Zarifa: A Woman's Battle in a Man's World by Hannah Lucinda Smith, Zarifa Ghafari
5.0
This is a timely and profoundly courageous account of a woman's fight for her homeland.
I think this is the first book that I picked up that details the events of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan but also the first book I have read what it is like to live and grow up in multiple regimes. (Asides from Malala's memoir).
Ghafari tells her life story of how she lived and survived (multiple times) the civil war marked by unprecedented violence and horror waged by different regimes that passed the hands of America and the Taliban. It also accounts how her activism was triggered in her young age from secretly going to school as a child to becoming Afghanistan's youngest female mayor. She also highlights her memories growing up her parents influence/dynamics, fighting for women's/her own education and as a mayor fighting for her homeland. It was eye opening to read how she and her family and many others lived under the ever changing regimes and how it impacted them.
This was such a hopeful and inspiring read but it was also so moving that it broke my heart and at times was hard to read. It details how difficult it is to be a women under regimes like this. Ghafari goes against all odds, starting a radio show/becoming a mayor etc to amplify women's voices. She accounts all the times she narrowly misses death and how she flees when the Taliban took over in 2021. But it was also filled with hope, the aid she started and continues to provide, being an inspiration to many girls/women. Her dad dying, her narrow escapes from death to finally fleeing and being in exile it was such a heart breaking read. But the fact that she found love (Bashir) and her supportive family and with her rock of a mother the ending of the book where she goes back to her country that's what really got me! A must read also go watch her Netflix doc because it looks amazing.
Quotes/
'If you educate one woman, you are saving ten generations.'
'In my country you can never take what you have for granted. Tomorrow it might all be gone.'
'71, 000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the twenty years of America's war; four in ten of those deaths were the results of airstrikes. For each one of those dead, there was an extended family left traumatised, angry and often thirsty for vengeance. Who offered to strike back at foreign invaders? The Taliban, taking on the very same role the mujahideen had twenty-five years before. And so, Afghanistan's cycle of invasion and extremism started again.'
'If you are reading this in a safe country, where a single atrocity will make the news headlines for days or weeks afterwards, you may not be able to imagine how a country like Afghanistan deals with its horrors. Here's how: it clears up and carries on, and does nothing to deal with trauma.'
'One of the biggest problems facing Afghanistan, years after the Taliban had been shoved out of power. There were rules and procedures, and a constitution that should have been applied to the whole country, yet they could be overturned by anyone who wielded a gun.'
'If you want to work outside the house you have to accept that this is what come with it... this is how it is. Societies like ours can't deal with a woman, or challenge her with their efforts and their abilities. Instead they try to break her. Harm her by harming her dignity. This is part of the game. If you can't accept it, then give up and sit at home.'
'Bravery comes easily to the ignorant.'
'We spent twenty year building something up, and in one moment everything was destroyed.'
I think this is the first book that I picked up that details the events of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan but also the first book I have read what it is like to live and grow up in multiple regimes. (Asides from Malala's memoir).
Ghafari tells her life story of how she lived and survived (multiple times) the civil war marked by unprecedented violence and horror waged by different regimes that passed the hands of America and the Taliban. It also accounts how her activism was triggered in her young age from secretly going to school as a child to becoming Afghanistan's youngest female mayor. She also highlights her memories growing up her parents influence/dynamics, fighting for women's/her own education and as a mayor fighting for her homeland. It was eye opening to read how she and her family and many others lived under the ever changing regimes and how it impacted them.
This was such a hopeful and inspiring read but it was also so moving that it broke my heart and at times was hard to read. It details how difficult it is to be a women under regimes like this. Ghafari goes against all odds, starting a radio show/becoming a mayor etc to amplify women's voices. She accounts all the times she narrowly misses death and how she flees when the Taliban took over in 2021. But it was also filled with hope, the aid she started and continues to provide, being an inspiration to many girls/women. Her dad dying, her narrow escapes from death to finally fleeing and being in exile it was such a heart breaking read. But the fact that she found love (Bashir) and her supportive family and with her rock of a mother the ending of the book where she goes back to her country that's what really got me! A must read also go watch her Netflix doc because it looks amazing.
Quotes/
'If you educate one woman, you are saving ten generations.'
'In my country you can never take what you have for granted. Tomorrow it might all be gone.'
'71, 000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the twenty years of America's war; four in ten of those deaths were the results of airstrikes. For each one of those dead, there was an extended family left traumatised, angry and often thirsty for vengeance. Who offered to strike back at foreign invaders? The Taliban, taking on the very same role the mujahideen had twenty-five years before. And so, Afghanistan's cycle of invasion and extremism started again.'
'If you are reading this in a safe country, where a single atrocity will make the news headlines for days or weeks afterwards, you may not be able to imagine how a country like Afghanistan deals with its horrors. Here's how: it clears up and carries on, and does nothing to deal with trauma.'
'One of the biggest problems facing Afghanistan, years after the Taliban had been shoved out of power. There were rules and procedures, and a constitution that should have been applied to the whole country, yet they could be overturned by anyone who wielded a gun.'
'If you want to work outside the house you have to accept that this is what come with it... this is how it is. Societies like ours can't deal with a woman, or challenge her with their efforts and their abilities. Instead they try to break her. Harm her by harming her dignity. This is part of the game. If you can't accept it, then give up and sit at home.'
'Bravery comes easily to the ignorant.'
'We spent twenty year building something up, and in one moment everything was destroyed.'