The Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years

In these memoirs the author writes about her experiences in Afghanistan, a country with which she has come to care deeply about and to explore intimately.
She details her experiences with people she has interviewed and come to know in Afghanistan and what she has come to witness in her years there.
Through the book she shapes a history of Afghnanistan, a rich land of many nations which has been invaded by many from the armies of Alexander the Great, the Persians and Mongols, the British and Russians/Soviets and most recently the Arab and Pakistani Islamists.
We learn that most of the Taliban were not Afghans at all but Arabs and Pakistani Islamo-Nazis barging into a county were they found it easy to wage their nihilist jihad and foist Islamo-Nazism on a hapless population.
The author explores the totalitarian and insane laws forced on the people by the Taliban in Afghanistan during the Taliban reign of terror, there, such as forcing women to be covered by a burka, to be not allowed out unless accompanied by a male relative, any woman who had her nails painted was to have her fingers cut off, and any woman who showed her ankles was to be whipped.

Music was banned, laughing in public was baned, chess was banned, card were banned, flying kites were banned, keeping any pets including birds was banned.

Of course the people of Afghanistan welcomed the American liberation of that country from the Taliban hell, even if Islamic jihadis and left wing fanatics around the world did not.
The people of Afghanistan wanted to be free, even if the likes of Noam Chomsky and the Satanic Stalinist Workers World Party in America or George Galloway's 'Respect' did not.

The author highlights memoirs of the holocaust perpetrated by the Soviets on the Afghan people, Isn't it ironic that the same Communist rabble around the world that supported Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan should be the same ones who loudly join in the hyena chorus against the USA for liberating Afghanistan from Taliban terror.
And why are radical feminists in the West so silent about atrocities against women in Islamic states, by the same Islamists these Western radicals are so quick to champion.

We also learn how the Afghans yearned for the peace and claim of the reign of the enlightened King Zahir Shah before 1973.
Zahir Shah had spilled no blood and allowed a peaceful and enlightened country to flourish in which women enjoyed full rights.
Afghanistan was plunged into the hell of the Soviet holocaust and then Islamist tyranny from 1978 when the Communists were foisted by the Soviets like a bacillus onto Afghanistan.

A very colourful, highly readable and exciting window into the tragedy of Afghanistan and it's liberation.
It was beautiful to read of the freedom enjoyed by women and girls after the Taliban were forced to flee.
Young women could wear lipstick and trousers and enjoy a full range of freedoms under the presidency of Hamid Karzai.
But still that country struggles under the terror of Islamist terrorism and the fear that the Taliban and Al Qaeda may regain control and reinstall their regime of terror.

THIS BOOK WOULD BE SO EASY TO MISS! (5/5 people found this helpful)

Why did Ms Lamb's editor allow her to choose this title! I suppose I feel a bit of a cheat because I only paid 50p for it from a local library sale, and then on a second visit, having bypassed this book the first time around because of its title. What on earth would I, a bloke, want to be reading a book about sewing circles in Herat written by someone called Christina Lamb? Well, at 50p a shot, why not? It was one of those "most important decisions I ever made" moments because it's the best book I have EVER read about this war-ravaged country and its people. Probably one of the most important books ever WRITTEN about the place. It should be compulsory reading for everyone sent to serve there in the military, and every leader of every country with a military presence there (and those who refuse to send troops) should be made to read it from cover to cover, because "about sewing circles in Herat" it ain't about. Now how on earth do we get this message out?

Much more than sewing circles (2/2 people found this helpful)

Lamb's title is misleading. The sewing circles which hid clandestine education for women forbidden by the Taliban, are but a minor part of the author's travels in Afghanistan in two main periods, the war against the Russians and just after the defeat of the Taliban. This is a terrible account of what war does to destroy a land and of the inhumanity of life under the strict Islam of the Taliban. Who can imagine what it must have been like to live under a regime where all picture, music and even laughter were banned. So what is related here is often ugly,violent and cruel. Lamb writes well but one cannot help wondering what was the mother of a young child thinking of to put her life at risk as she did. This is not a pleasant read but there is something of happiness before the end and now life in Kabul is, I can say from personal experience, much better than when Lamb wrote. Afghanistan though sadly remains a land of violence still in danger from oppressive Islamists

So much more than an entertaining tale (16/17 people found this helpful)

The Sewing Circles of Herat helps to bring today's Afghanistan into a clearer perspective. Christina Lamb lets the reader better see the faces and hearts of many who have been, to most westerners, simply names mentioned when Afghanistan was bigger TV pull. Lamb brings to light, through sharing her own experience, the personal and political struggle of the people of Afghanistan. Through her, the reader is able to get closer to the individual stories of strength and sorrow. She introduces warlords and foot soldiers, and through her they become real people. It is too easy to sit back and watch the newscasts, to turn them off and forget. In knowing more about the people involved, it is harder to forget.

Lamb does not tell an entertaining tale. She reports her own fascinating experience, and she reports it well. She gives the reader the details. She shares her deep love for a people, culture and county, and through her writing she allows the reader to share some of the sadness and joy with her. Above all the reader learns, of history, heroism, bravery, and caring. Lamb helps the reader see the landscape of Afghanistan in years past and now. And the reader, through Lamb, mourns the loss of what was Afghanistan, and hopes for what its people might have in the future.

Amazing! (11/12 people found this helpful)

I have never wanted to go to Afghanistan, mostly because of the bad press we in 'THE WEST' have had, but this book has changed my mind. We see both the bad and the good and still I want to see more. I cried and I laughed. Christina Lamb was so extraordinarily brave, that I wish I had had the courage to do what she did when I was in my early twenties. How sad that the culture and history of this vibrant country has been all but destroyed by misunderstood ideology and illiteracy!

The Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years

Christina Lamb

Reader Reviews:

One woman's love affair with a tortured land (0/0 people found this helpful)

THIS BOOK WOULD BE SO EASY TO MISS! (5/5 people found this helpful)

Much more than sewing circles (2/2 people found this helpful)

So much more than an entertaining tale (16/17 people found this helpful)

Amazing! (11/12 people found this helpful)

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