BOOK REVIEWS
The Sleeping Buddha: Portraits of a Changing Afghanistan
by Hamida Ghafour
Price: $24.95 paper
ISBN: 978-1-55278-644-4
Page count: 400 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Released: May
In 2003, journalist Hamida Ghafour was asked by London’s Daily Telegraph to go to Afghanistan – the country from which her family had fled 21 years earlier, when she was four – to report on American-led reconstruction efforts. The Sleeping Buddha tells the story of her time in that shattered country, and her quest to reconnect with her heritage.
Ghafour is descended from a long line of important figures in Afghan history: her great-grandfather was a Sufi leader who introduced Islam to the Nuristan region, her great-uncle helped draft the Afghan constitution in 1964, and her grandmother (after whom she is named) was a highly regarded poet and writer. She goes in search of the Afghanistan of family lore: a place where Islam was a tolerant religion that saw men and women as equals, where the valleys and fields were lush with vegetation, and where people were able to provide for their families.
What Ghafour finds instead breaks her heart. In today’s Afghanistan, young men join the insurgency against NATO and U.S. coalition forces not in defence of Islam, but because the $200 on offer means that their families might be able to eat. Despite the overthrow of the Taliban, women are still treated as chattel, and girls as young as six are given as brides to settle disputes between families. Muslims fight Muslims, because after decades of foreign occupation and civil war, it is the only way of life they know.
Daily news reports mean that most of us have some awareness of what’s going on in Afghanistan. What Ghafour does with this book is delve into the details, delivering insights into the shortcomings of the efforts to rebuild, along with a glimpse of the country as it was when her forebears helped shape Afghan society. Combining journalistic clarity with an emotional narrative, Ghafour has crafted a book that is both informative and visceral.
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