The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan

As a young woman, Christina Lamb traveled to Afghanistan, and through a mix of persistence, courage, connections, and writing talent managed to document the final two years of the struggle for Afghan freedom against the Soviets. Over the years she kept her finger on the pulse of the region, wrote a couple of books, and ultimately returned again at be on the ground as the Taliban breathed its last in the early months of 2002.Christina Lamb is a wonderful writer with a knack for interweaving just the right amount of her own personal narrative in with the current events about which she is writing. In addition, she casts back into the past and gives a whole lot of background information on Afghan history, politics, monarchy, trade, and agriculture. I especially loved sections of the book where she discussed the architecture of the city of Herat during the height of its beauty, juxtaposing it against its current state. While Herat may be in the title of the book, many cities are given equal coverage, among them the more conservative stronghold of Kandahar and the capital city of Kabul. The book is fairly accurately titled in that women's issues are very prominently featured in the narrative, and she discusses the history of different areas of Afghanistan with regards to women, education, and the arts, both before and after the Taliban.Lamb does an excellent job bringing the reader's senses to life and into her environment; readers feel the ruts beneath the airplane wheels and the grit of the dust storms-you smell the pine trees and taste the mutton. Hearts ache for the children who lack for the most basic things-she heads one of her chapters with a quote that I love from the Persian poet Rumi: "Look at your eyes. They are small but they see enormous things." The things that these children have seen and survived defy comprehension. Indeed, the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography was awarded to Massoud Hossaini for his horrific shot of a twelve year old girl screaming in fear amidst a mass of bodies moments after a suicide bomb detonated in Kabul. That same sense of place and culture comes through in the tenor of Christina Lamb's writing; she spent a lot of time among the people, not sitting in the hotel with her western journalist coworkers, and it shows.My one complaint, and the single factor that kept me from giving the book a fifth star, is that at times her timeline can get rather discombobulated as she tries to focus on specific people or places. I would have preferred that she take a more chronological approach; obviously those places where she goes back to the Mongols that is not possible, but a stricter chronology from the late 1970's to the 2000s would have made for a much tighter narrative. My preference would have been to provide a listing of people at the beginning of the book, to help readers to have difficulty keeping all of the similar sounding Middle Eastern names straight, and then travel chronologically through the story, letting readers refer back to the list to refresh their memories as players come up again.There are a lot of books out there on this topic. This is a very good one for people without a lot of background, as the author does an excellent job giving the reader everything needed. It was published in 2002, so many of the players have since been apprehended, but that doesn't in any way take away from the history of it. Overall, I highly recommend this energetically written, informative account.

I wouldn't place this among the best books I have read about Afghanistan but it still was a decent read. Christina Lamb, co-author of I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, covered the Afghan war during the late 1980s. She returned to Afghanistan after September 11th to write about the people who lived under Taliban rule. This book was first published in 2002 and contains an afterword from Fall of 2003.Having spent time covering the war in the 1980s really turned out to be a huge asset for the author as she was able to interview key people for this book including Hamid Karzai who became Afghanistan president in December 2001. By far, the best parts of this book were the stories of the people of Afghanistan. Even though I have read quite a few books, specifically on the women in the country, I still learned quite a bit of info. While I knew books and museum artifacts had been destroyed under Taliban rule, I had never heard the story of an artist who used watercolors to cover over the faces and bodies of people on oil paintings so they wouldn't be destroyed.My biggest criticism of the book is it just didn't have a cohesive flow and at times could be hard to follow. I would not recommend this book if you aren't already familiar with the country and what has taken place in the last few decades. The history bits were usually placed in the middle of chapters and didn't really transition well. At times it felt like way too much unnecessary info was being provided. I much would have rather heard more from the people she interviewed and their experiences.I have to say it was interesting reading this book knowing that it was written over 15 years ago. I found myself wondering what has happened to some of the people she interviewed. There was a particular prediction from a man that is pretty spot on. He essentially stated the Taliban will never be defeated and they will just come back under a new name. It was pretty chilling to read his words knowing that the battle against terrorism in some ways is even more difficult now.I think this book probably had more of an impact when it was first published but in my opinion there are better books now on the market if you are interested in learning about Afghanistan. It certainly wasn't a wasted read but this isn't a book I would go out of my way to recommend like I have with others.

Ms. Lamb is very brave to have gone to the belly of the beast, so to speak. She has given us a personal inside look at how the Afghani muslim, al quaeda, taliban, you name it, really operate. She is bravely exposing the evil for what it is, but also shows how the everyday people live their lives despite that evil around them.

The author spent time in Afghanistan during the time of the Soviet invasion and expulsion. She went back right after 9/11. The narrative moves from past to present, to past, from Islamabad to Herat to Kandahar, from war stories, to politics, to art.It is worth the time it takes to read, and adds to one's understanding of the region.The title and jacket descriptions made me think that this might be an Afghan version of Azar Nafisi's amazing book. It wasn't. It took me a little while to get over that and look at the book on its own merits.Its not bad, but a better title would have been "My Motorcycle Mullahs". The subtitle, A Personal Voyage Through Afganistan, does describe the contents.It doesn't have the richness or depth of Nafisi's work, and I wouldn't have made the comparison if not for the less than apt title. I have a vision of the marketing people, looking at the numbers on "reading Lolita in Tehran", noting the bit about the poetry group hiding in the sewing circle, and coming up with the title. That probably did a lot for sales.

This account speaks eloquently of the need/desire for education by women in Afghanistan. Also discloses quirks in the culture that we need to understand in order to be effective collaborators.

A very well written and fascinating book which anyone interested in Afghanistan and the Taliban will find helpful and enjoyable. I highly recommend it for both male and female readers.

After reading "Triple" by Ken Follet, I wanted to learn more about the Taliban and the Afghanistan history.Lambs book says it all. I now have a greater knowledge regarding the conflicts and the everyday lives of the people who live through it. Lamb is an excellent writer and I could not put the book down.She risks her life to get the news out regarding the warlords, the Russians, and the rise of the Taliban.You read about the scarifice women make in order to be educated and how they go undercover to do it.This is a must read.

Not finished the book t butt up to now very good. Condition of book was described as good certainty fair at best with a great deal of written notes by previous owner and broken spine. Arrived within time bit quite late on a long time period quoted.

Excellent read

Excellent account of trials and tribulations reported by the author during her years of travel and work there.