An intimate look at the lives, loves, horrors, and dreams of girls and women in an Afghan mountain village under Taliban rule. A heartbreaking tragedy in the vein of The Kite Runner from a major English-speaking Afghan figure famous for his books and long career in politics. Siamak Herawi brings Afghan women centerstage and takes us deep into the heart of his motherland to witness the reality of their lives under the Taliban's most extreme interpretation...

Chronicles the lives, and words, of Afghan women--from rug weavers to domestic violence counselors to business owners, educators, and activists--who are charting a new path for themselves, their families, their communities, and their nation.

Follows the experiences of four women who fought in active combat duty in Afghanistan and also worked to gather intelligence about the Taliban from local Afghani women, with whom they were able to cultivate relationships, unlike their male counterparts.

In 2010, for the first time since the Soviets, Afghanistan allowed women to join the armed forces, and Niloofar entered Afghanistan's military academy. Niloofar had to break through social barriers to demonstrate confidence, leadership, and decisiveness—essential qualities for a combat pilot. Niloofar performed the first solo flight of her class—ahead of all her male classmates—and in 2013 became Afghanistan's first female fixed-wing air force...

Set in Afghanistan, this emotionally engaging first novel uses alternating chapters to weave together the story of nine-year-old Rahima and her sisters with that of their great-great-grandmother Shekiba. Both Rahima and Shekiba share the experience of participating in bacha posh, in which young girls are dressed as and treated as boys until puberty. And like Shekiba, Rahima and her two older sisters endure the difficult and often horrific experience...

"Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zalmani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan's thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan's progressive president, and Sitara's beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara's world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara's entire family....

"A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life. Sola Mahfouz was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1996. That same year, the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backwards on women's rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and...

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Atiq Rahimi. It tells a story of a young woman watching over her older husband, in a country torn apart by war. A bullet in the neck has reduced him to a comatose state. One day, the woman's vigil changes. She begins to speak truth to her silent husband, telling him about her suffering, her dreams and her secrets. After years of living under his control, with no voice of her own, she says things she could never...

"An astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women's rights in the Muslim world. Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender, had fallen in love. Defying...