Latifa: My Forbidden Face

By MARGIE THOMSON

Latifa was 16 when the Taleban invaded her home city, the Afghanistan capital Kabul. For Latifa, a kind of Afghani Anne Frank, the Taleban meant the end of all hope for the future.

The daughter of a religious but liberal family, she had been about to sit the final part of her entry exam to journalism school, and had a vibrant social life with her extended family and school friends.

Instead, she and her sister and mother became prisoners in their own home, allowed out only if accompanied by a male family member, and dressed in the heavy, dehumanising burqa, out of which they could barely see. Even that does not keep women safe, though, and on her first visit out Latifa witnesses a woman being cable-whipped until she streams with blood, simply because she had the wrong-coloured shoes on.

Latifa's mother is a doctor and gynaecologist, and although she is no longer allowed to practise (under the Taleban's rules women can't work at all; neither are they allowed to visit a male doctor), ill or wounded women come secretly to their apartment at night to receive illegal treatment, and so Latifa's perspective on the regime is broader than just her own experience. This is a fascinating, horrifying portrayal of one family's experience under a brutal regime, and is invaluable in the insight and detail it offers.

Virago

$34.95