My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban

Description:

Poignant first-hand account of life for a young Afghani woman under the TalibanLatifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. She dreamed of one day becoming a journalist and was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Then in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. Her school was closed and from that moment she became a prisoner in her own home at just 16. Latifa was now forced to wear a chadri and struggled against an overwhelming sense of helplessness and despair. In a step of defiance, she set up a clandestine school in her home for a small number of young girls. Latifa knew that she was risking her life for something that could change little. But the teaching gave her a reason to get up in the morning. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope. Earlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group.

subjects: Social conditions,  Politics and government,  Biography,  Women,  Nonfiction,  Biography & Autobiography,  Condition sociale,  Talibans,  Femmes,  Musulmane,  Moeurs et coutumes,  Conditions sociales,  Femme - condition,  Oppression,  Islamisme,  Recits personnels,  Islam,  Integrisme islamique,  Document,  Biographies,  Condition,  Femme,  Taliban,  Legal status, laws,  Women, afghanistan,  Afghanistan, social conditions,  Afghanistan, politics and government,  Vrouwen,  Women, biography,  Donna,  Posizione sociale,  1996-2001,  Diari e memorie,  Middle East - General,  Personal Memoirs

People: Latifa (1980-)

Places: Afghanistan

Times: 20th century,  1989-2001,  1973-1989