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Laddar... Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistanav Ann Jones
   Ingen/inga Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. The author was in Afghanistan, and particularly Kabul, from approximately 2002 until 2005 for varying lengths of time. The primary topics she addresses are education, women's prisons, and the history of Kabul including the Soviet occupation, the mujahiddin "brother wars", the Taliban, and the U.S. occupation. She definitely has a liberal slant (which suits me fine). I really enjoyed the book. (  ) Phyllis.Mann | Jul 13, 2015 |  I've developed sort of an irrational fascination with (very) modern Afghanistan and the Taliban, so I've read a fair amount about the country (though am by no means a scholar!). This is by far the most interesting and powerful book I've read. It treats the geopolitics of the country quite well (tangled and myriad though it all may be!) while giving an 'on the ground' perspective that I've found nowhere else. Definitely biased contra-US and interventionist types, but even still-a fantastic and fascinating read. dixonparnell | May 24, 2010 | If you can read past the author's occasional political jabs, this is an amazing look at the current condition of women in Afghanistan, the realities of international aid, as well as the nation's culture and history. ( ) MrsBond | Sep 19, 2008 | Letter to my brother about this book: I just read a thin book that greatly enlarged my understanding of what is going on in Afghanistan and I’m setting it aside to loan you when you come over. It is called Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones. I bought it because I thought it was going to be one of those cozy memoirs that I like—woman goes to interesting place and then writes about it. On the surface only, it is that, although hardly cozy, but she gives the most understandable short expositions on Afghan history and culture and on how we are doing things over there since we ran the Taliban out that I have read. Also on how thoroughly we came to finance the jihadist movement we now fight—I knew we had done so to some extent but I had no idea how large our role was or what a good start we gave them. Also the best potted history of the Afghan mujahadin coteries. I almost put it down and stopped reading it because I was expecting a much lighter book and had thus picked it up when I was in the mood for something nice and warm. I’m glad I went back and finished it even though it is dark and intense. (It was like popping a dark liquid chocolate in your mouth only to find you had instead mouthed a scorpion.) You probably are not going to find yourself liking her herself very much: she is critical of almost everything—our efforts, army efforts, especially of current contractor efforts and past CIA and US foreign policy—way back to Jimmy Carter--and even of do-gooders efforts (which includes her), and of the Afghans themselves. Nevertheless, once you finish it, you realize it has the ring of truth about it—a truth we need to know if we are going to mess around in that country. (  )3  sharonk21 | Dec 6, 2006 | inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
"After the bombing of Kabul ceased, journalist and women's rights activist Ann Jones set out for the destroyed city, hoping to being help where her country had brought destruction." "Here is her report from inside a city struggling to rise from the ruins. Working among the multitude of impoverished war widows, training Kabul's ill-equipped English teachers, and investigating the city's prisons for women, Jones encounters women and men from every layer of Afghan society: Sharif, a prosperous Kabuli who owns a small fleet of vehicles that shuttle foreign aid workers around the city; Homa, a young widow facing the death penalty, accused of murdering a cousin who twice tried to rape her; Salma, a law student who needs a scholarship to study at an American university to stave off an unwelcome marriage; Nasir, a former soldier (first for the communist government, then for the mujahadin) who now holds two jobs, as an elementary school teacher and as a bicycle repairman. In the streets and markets, she hears the Afghan view of the supposed benefits brought by the fall of the Taliban and learns that regarding women as something other than full human beings is the norm, not the aberration of one conspicuously repressive regime. Jones unravels Afghanistan's complicated history as a proxy playground for greater powers and confronts the ways in which Afghan education, culture, and politics have repeatedly been hijacked - by Communists, Islamic extremists, and Western free marketers - always with disastrous results. And she reveals, through small events, the big disjunctions: between US promises and performance, between the new "democracy" and the still-entrenched warlords, between what's boasted of and what is."--BOOK JACKET. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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