Another Afghanistan A Pre Taliban Memoir

Author : Julie Hill
Publisher : Bookbaby
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2021-12-31
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1667804820

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Another Afghanistan: a Pre-Taliban Memoir by Julie Hill Pdf

An engaging and richly appreciative account of life in Afghanistan in Pre-Taliban times. Many books have been written in the past thirty-five years about Afghanistan's war and its geopolitics of terrorism, but none have provided an intimate view of the country and of Afghan society from the viewpoint of a largely neutral observer. Set during the golden years of Afghanistan --a rare period of peace in the mid1970-- it records memorable and sometime humorous diplomatic encounters between East and West. Its ground level perspective differs from the usual accounts of military men and politicians, offering an intimate view of Afghanistan and its people, including he foreign community. Fluent in Dari, the author was involved with the Diplomatic Wife's Organization and in conversations with ordinary citizens in the country's remote corners. Anything about Afghanistan can bear political ramifications, given the torturous history of that country, but these are foremost personal memoirs and impressions, more than any kind of deliberate or scholarly political history, hoping that the reader will begin to appreciate another Afghanistan behind today's raucous headlines. An Alexandrian Greek who now resides in Rancho Sta. Fe, California, Julie Hill has traveled and lived all over the world as the wife of an international diplomat and on her own as indefatigable adventurer even in her senior years. This is her fifth book, following A Promise to Keep: From Athens to Afghanistan (2003), The Silk Road Revisited: Markets, Merchants and Minarets (2006) Privileged Witness; Journeys of Rediscovery (2014) and In The Afternoon Sun: My Alexandria (2017). Speaking six languages, she worked as an international telecommunications executive before retiring in Southern California.

Author : Cat Parenti
Publisher : Afghanistan
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2019-03-11
Category : Travel
ISBN : 099643108X

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Afghanistan: A Memoir From Brooklyn to Kabul by Cat Parenti Pdf

Thrill to this true-life adventure of an American heroine in a far off land After having visions of a strange land since childhood, Cat Parenti left New York and headed for the rugged landscape of Afghanistan, which felt like time traveling to the 12th century. There she fell in love with the people, the culture, and a tall, dark stranger. In book one of this sweeping two-volume memoir, Cat takes you on an unforgettable journey of full immersion into the sights, sounds, smells, food, rituals and beliefs of the people she came to know and love in this far off land. Her adventures are told with such exquisite detail, you'll feel as if you are there experiencing them first-hand. Afghanistan offers a rare opportunity to understand Afghan life, culture, and beliefs before the Taliban, and what it was like to be a gutsy, independent women living in a male-dominated world and thriving. From ordinary experiences like starting a business and getting a home to the extraordinary moments of falling in love with a nobleman and nearly losing her life on three separate occasions (featured in book 2), you may have to keep reminding yourself that what you are reading isn't fiction. Accolades for Afghanistan "Building bridges of cultural understanding and respect ... I thank you for giving voice to the wonderful history and culture of the region." - Hillary Rodham Clinton "The real story here is the author's love affair with an Afghan from a prominent family .... with vivid writing and an engaging story that kept me on the edge of my seat. It takes a brave woman to do [these] things." - Monica Bauer, award-winning playwright "The author takes readers through an innovative personal journey ... a magnetically hypnotizing adventure that is alternately mysterious and unique ... If you want to know what Afghanistan was like before the Soviet invasion and the rise of the Taliban, then [this book] is for you." - Abena Agyeman Fisher, Senior Editor, NewsOne Cat Parenti grew up in Brooklyn and lived in Afghanistan on and off for twenty years. She survived the political twists and turns of Afghan history from King Zahir Shah through the rise of the Taliban and started a successful business selling antique clothing and jewelry to U.S. museums and museum shops. She has given presentations on Afghanistan, including at the U.N., and taught Afghan cooking. She currently lives with her daughter in Arizona.

Author : Mellissa Fung
Publisher : HarperCollins Canada
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2011-05-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781443408264

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Under An Afghan Sky by Mellissa Fung Pdf

In October 2008, Mellissa Fung, a long-time reporter for CBC’s The National, was leaving a refugee camp outside of Kabul. Suddenly, she was grabbed by armed men claiming to be Taliban, stabbed, stuffed into the back of a car and driven off into the desert. When the group finally reached a village in the middle of nowhere, her kidnappers pushed her towards a hole in the ground. For twenty-eight days, Mellissa Fung lived in that hole, which was barely big enough to stand up or lie down in, nursing her injuries, praying, writing in her notebook and, as a veteran journalist, interrogating her own captors. Under an Afghan Sky is the gripping tale of Fung’s days in captivity, and a powerful book about survival and the indomitable spirit of one woman in the most perilous of circumstances.

Author : Phillip Corwin
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : History
ISBN : 0813531713

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Doomed in Afghanistan by Phillip Corwin Pdf

"In April 1992, Phillip Corwin was in Afghanistan as part of a United Nations team whose mission was to help ensure the transfer of power from the Soviet-installed communist regime of President Najibullah to an interim authority that would prepare for elections. Some years after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, Najibullah's regime crumbled, and he was convinced to resign, with the understanding that he would be evacuated to a neutral country (India). Due to a series of miscalculations and machinations, the UN's diplomatic mission failed. Kabul fell to groups of mujahadin before Najibullah could be evacuated and before an interim authority could be installed. The inability of the various mujahadin factions to unite led to their eventual defeat by the Taliban, who four years later routed Najibullah from his safe haven at the UN compound and executed him."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Andrew Squires
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 88 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2018-03-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1986184544

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Chasing the Taliban: by Andrew Squires Pdf

The story of a small town boy who grows up to join the military and deploys to Afghanistan and makes it home. But he brings home some baggage of the war such as PTSD.

Author : Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller
Publisher : Little A
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1503903761

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The Broken Circle by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller Pdf

"Before the Soviet invasion of 1980, Enjeela Ahmadi remembers her home--Kabul, Afghanistan--as peaceful, prosperous, and filled with people from all walks of life. But after her mother, unsettled by growing political unrest, leaves for medical treatment in India, the civil war intensifies, changing young Enjeela's life forever. Amid the rumble of invading Soviet tanks, Enjeela and her family are thrust into chaos and fear when it becomes clear that her mother will not be coming home. Thus begins an epic, reckless, and terrifying five-year journey of escape for Enjeela, her siblings, and their father to reconnect with her mother. In navigating the dangers ahead of them, and in looking back at the wilderness of her homeland, Enjeela discovers the spiritual and physical strength to find hope in the most desperate of circumstances."--

Author : Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef
Publisher : Hurst & Company Limited
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2011-06-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781849041522

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My Life with the Taliban by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef Pdf

Abdul Zaeef describes growing up in poverty in rural Kandahar province, which he fled for Pakistan after the Russian invasion of 1979. Zaeef joined the jihad in 1983, was seriously wounded in several encounters and met many leading figures of the resistance, including the current Taliban head, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Disgusted by the lawlessness that ensued after the Soviet withdrawal, Zaeef was one among the former mujahidin who were closely involved in the emergence of the Taliban, in 1994. He then details his Taliban career, including negotiations with Ahmed Shah Massoud and role as ambassador to Pakistan during 9/11. In early 2002 Zaeef was handed over to American forces in Islamabad and spent four and a half years in prison in Bagram and Guantanamo before being released without charge. My Life with the Taliban offers insights into the Pashtun village communities that are the Taliban's bedrock and helps to explain what drives men like Zaeef to take up arms against the foreigners who are foolish enough to invade his homeland.

Author : Janice Minott
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
Page : 405 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Afghanistan
ISBN : 9781425113490

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Letters from Kabul, 1966-1968 by Janice Minott Pdf

Letters from Kabul is a unique page-turning memoir. Janice Minott paints an intimate portrait of an everyday Afghanistan just entering the twentieth century, its peace soon to be shattered by decades of military conflict. The author's humorous and reflective letters make us privy to what the Muslim culture teaches one ordinary American family. Her poignant details of a culture vastly different from our own promise to awaken us to new perspectives as well. The lilting rhythms of Janice's days draw us into Kabul with both zest and profundity. From picking up a family and moving them halfway around the world to acclimating to a world apart, from ventures into the maze of Kabul's Old City bazaars to bone-rattling jeep rides into the Hindu Kush, from an on-the-fly encounter with a friendly smuggler to the heart-warming hospitality of Afghan neighbors: if you've ever fantasized about the reality of living in the mountainous kingdom of Afghanistan. Letters from Kabul offers you an open ticket. Janice writes generously from her unique vantage point as a revolutionary New Englander. Teaching English to a class of adult Afghan women is her passport out of the stifling world of Foreign Service teas and coffees. While her husband oversees the nationwide Peace Corps volunteers, Janice undergoes vast personal transformation. Such transformation ends up being an unexpected gift.

Author : Duane Evans
Publisher : Grub Street Publishers
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2017-07-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9781611213584

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Foxtrot in Kandahar by Duane Evans Pdf

A thrilling true story of courage and duty after 9/11—“an extraordinary read from cover to cover . . . Gritty, frustrating, brutal, exhilarating” (Midwest Book Review). Within hours after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, ex-Green Beret Duane Evans began a personal quest to become part of the US response against al-Qa’ida. His determination led him to join one of the CIAs elite teams bound for Afghanistan. It was a journey that eventually took him to the front lines in Pakistan—first as part of the advanced element of a CIA group supporting President Hamid Karzai, and finally as leader of the under-resourced and often overlooked Foxtrot team. Evans’s mission was to venture into southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban and al-Qa’ida held sway, and try to organize a cohesive resistance among the fractious warlords and tribal leaders. He traveled in the company of Pashtun warriors—one of only a handful of Americans pushing forward across the desert into some of the most dangerous, yet mesmerizingly beautiful, landscape on earth. Brilliantly crafted and fast-paced, Foxtrot in Kandahar “dramatically reports the huge challenges and exceptional success of [Evans’s] and his brothers’ work in Afghanistan defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in nine weeks” (Ambassador Cofer Black, former director, Counterterrorist Center, CIA).

Author : Mohammad Sayyed Akbar Agha
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2020-07-31
Category : Afghan War, 2001-
ISBN : 3944214099

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I Am Akbar Agha by Mohammad Sayyed Akbar Agha Pdf

Following in the tradition of Mullah Zaeef's My Life With the Taliban, Akbar Agha's memoir tells a story of war, friendship and political intrigue. Starting in 1980s Kandahar, the difficulties and successes of the mujahedeen come through clearly as Akbar Agha struggles to administer a group of fighters. He details the different groups fighting in Kandahar, their cooperation and the scale of the Soviet Union's efforts to crush them. Not directly a participant in the Taliban government that ruled post-1994, Akbar Agha offers a sometimes-critical account of the administration built by many of his former fighters. After the fall of the Islamic Emirate in 2001, Akbar Agha was involved in the Jaish ul-Muslimeen opposition group and for the first time he has revealed his account of what happened in the kidnapping of UN aid workers. I Am Akbar Agha ends with an analysis of the problems afflicting Afghanistan and outlines a vision for the political future of the country post-elections and post-2015. Anand Gopal has written an introduction to the book.

Author : Abdul Salam Zaeef
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2010-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781849044448

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My Life with the Taliban by Abdul Salam Zaeef Pdf

This is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, a senior former member of the Taliban. His memoirs, translated from Pashto, are more than just a personal account of his extraordinary life. My Life with the Taliban offers a counter-narrative to the standard accounts of Afghanistan since 1979. Zaeef describes growing up in rural poverty in Kandahar province. Both of his parents died at an early age, and the Russian invasion of 1979 forced him to flee to Pakistan. He started fighting the jihad in 1983, during which time he was associated with many major figures in the anti-Soviet resistance, including the current Taliban head Mullah Mohammad Omar. After the war Zaeef returned to a quiet life in a small village in Kandahar, but chaos soon overwhelmed Afghanistan as factional fighting erupted after the Russians pulled out. Disgusted by the lawlessness that ensued, Zaeef was one among the former mujahidin who were closely involved in the discussions that led to the emergence of the Taliban, in 1994. Zaeef then details his Taliban career as civil servant and minister who negotiated with foreign oil companies as well as with Afghanistan's own resistance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud. Zaeef was ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and his account discusses the strange "phoney war" period before the US-led intervention toppled the Taliban. In early 2002 Zaeef was handed over to American forces in Pakistan, notwithstanding his diplomatic status, and spent four and a half years in prison (including several years in Guantanamo) before being released without having been tried or charged with any offence. My Life with the Taliban offers a personal and privileged insight into the rural Pashtun village communities that are the Taliban's bedrock. It helps to explain what drives men like Zaeef to take up arms against the foreigners who are foolish enough to invade his homeland.

Author : Adrian Bonenberger
Publisher : Head & the Hand Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Afghan War, 2001-
ISBN : 0989312526

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Afghan Post by Adrian Bonenberger Pdf

Literary nonfiction. Adrian was deployed two times to Afghanistan, first as an executive officer and then as a captain skirmishing with Taliban forces. Throughout his time overseas, he wrote letters to friends, fellow soldiers, and his family. Showing vulnerability to some and steadfastness to others, these letters form AFGHAN POST and chronicle his identity as it splinters under the strain of modern warfare. This epistolary memoir is a daring look into the mind and experiences of an Afghanistan war veteran. Its form allows readers to explore, along with Adrian, the social, emotional, and physical consequences of mental compartmentalization. As one blurber put it, AFGHAN POST is "the story of a sensitive, intelligent young man as he comes to terms with conflict, privilege, duty, and ultimately himself."

Author : Elliot Ackerman
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2022-08-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780593492055

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The Fifth Act by Elliot Ackerman Pdf

A powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war’s echoing legacy Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation effort was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war. For Ackerman, it also became a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week, the week the war ended. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war's long progression, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story’s tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war’s trajectory will find a trenchant account here. But The Fifth Act also brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, and at great personal cost. Ackerman's story is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.

Author : M. H. Anwar
Publisher : Carlton Press Corporation
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1981
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0806216964

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Memories of Afghanistan by M. H. Anwar Pdf

Author : Masuda Sultan
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2006-02-28
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781416523055

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My War at Home by Masuda Sultan Pdf

Born in Kandahar in 1978, Sultan fled to the United States at age five with her family. Raised in Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens, Sultan saw her life change when she was married by arrangement at the young age of seventeen to a virtual stranger fourteen years her senior -- a marriage she struggled to maintain and then hastily fought, eventually (after three years) being granted a divorce. This very divorce would become one of the first in her close-knit Afgan community, where the subject is considered rare and taboo. Sultan went on to graduate from college summa cum laude with a degree in economics, and in July 2001, she returned to Kandahar, to explore her family roots and find herself. There she met her relatives and surveyed the conservative provincial town where she was born. on return visit to afganistan, she discovered the tragic death of her relatives at the hands of American troops and began to seek answers. My War at Home is her memoir of self-discovery, family tradition, and life as a Muslim and feminist with political ideals. It speaks to the younger generation of Muslims in America as they struggle to resolve the ever-present inner conflict about what it means to be an American and a Muslim, while also examining the Muslim-American identity at both personal and political levels.