"Inspired by generations of her family's unwavering belief in the power of education, Pashtana Durrani recognized her calling early in life: to educate Afghanistan's girls and young women, raised in a society where learning is forbidden. In a country devastated by war and violence, heeding that call seemed both impossible and dangerous. Pashtana founded the nonprofit LEARN and developed a program for getting educational materials directly into the...

Imagine living in a country where women and girls are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go out. This is the life of Parvana, a young girl growing up in Afghanistan under the control of an extreme religious military group. When soldiers burst into her home and drag her father off to prison, Parvana is forced to take responsibility for her...

"Razia is excited when her grandfather tells her there's a school for girls being built in their Afghan village. At last, girls will have the same opportunity to be educated as boys. 'Every night I fell asleep dreaming about going to school like my brothers,' she says. Her grandfather wants Razia to enroll in the school. He remembers a time, before the wars and the Taliban, when educated women in Afghanistan became doctors, government workers and...

"Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city. Parvana's father -- a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed -- works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for having forbidden books, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food....

"Half the children of the world -- the girls -- are treated unfairly because of their gender. But girls around the word are taking action. The International Day of the Girl features nine inspiring stories based on real girls' experiences with gender inequality around the word. From Brazil to Afghanistan to Canada, each story highlights issues faced by girls -- including gender-based violence, illiteracy, sanitation and child marriage -- and how they've...

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...

The nineteenth daughter of a local village leader in rural Afghanistan, the author was left to die in the sun after birth by her mother. But she survived, and perseverance in the face of extreme hardship has defined her life ever since. Despite the abuse of her family, the exploitative Russian and Taliban regimes, the murders of her father, brother, and husband, and numerous attempts on her life, she rose above her fate to becoming the first Afghani...

Tracing a path through the Persian Gulf War and the events of 9/11 to the oilmarket convulsions of today, "Inside the Kingdom" gives readers a modern history of the Saudis in their own words, revealing a people attempting to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Shahalimi has compiled the voices of 13 influential Afghan women who reflect on their country's past, their own upbringing, and their work to empower girls and women.

"November 2015. Seasoned war photojournalist Annie Hawkins returns home after an assignment to find her life falling apart. She's under investigation for an incident that happened six months earlier in Afghanistan. Her daughter Mel and friends are busy fundraising to rebuild the Wad Qol Secondary School for Girls and expect Annie to deliver the money. To make matters worse, she has a major argument with the love of her life, Finn Cerelli, and they're...