Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom

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Kabul was always more beautiful in the snow. Even the piles of rotting rubbish in my street, the only source of food for the scrawny chickens and goats that our neighbors kept outside their mud houses, looked beautiful to me after the snow had covered them in white during the long night.

Though she is only twenty-three, Zoya has witnessed and endured more tragedy and terror than most people experience in a lifetime. Born in a land ravaged by war, she was robbed of her parents when they were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. Devastated, she fled Kabul with her grandmother and started a new life in exile in Pakistan. She joined the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization that challenged the crushing edicts of the Taliban government, and she took destiny into her own hands, joining a dangerous, clandestine war to save her nation.

Direct and unsentimental, Zoya vividly brings to life the realities of growing up in a Muslim culture, the terror of living in a perpetual war zone, the pain of losing those she has loved, the horrors of a woman’s life under the Taliban, and the discovered healing and transformation that lead her on a path of resistance.

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Her life is in constant danger but despite it all she continues to live and work in the repressive and violent environment of the Middle East. Much to the detriment of not only women but then entire world came the infamous Taliban who's immense cruelty is shocking and who today are regaining their foothold not only in Afghanistan but Pakistan too.Today Zoya follows in her mothers footsteps and has dedicated her life to RAWA-Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. For this she must be commended. Zoya's story begins with her childhood in the war torn country of Afghanistan as the daughter of brave and free thinking parents who tried their best to make life better for women. Unfortunately, they were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists who were trying to put the country back in the dark ages after the Russian occupation.

She becomes gradually aware that her parents are involved in clandestine activities to undermine the increasingly repressive political regime. There are brief accounts of secret travels to Afghanistan to photograph Taliban activities such as the cutting off of hands. Zoya is the nom de guerre of a 23-year old Afghan woman who fled her homeland after her parents were murdered on orders of the thuggish Mujahideen.

There Zoya grows to adulthood and joins the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). I wish Zoya had been less vague about the work of her organisation and her actual role in it, but it is apparently necessary for reasons of personal security. Zoya is involved in assisting Afghan refugees and later becomes a spokeswoman and fund-raiser for the organization.

If you've been unable to make sense out of the conflicting regimes and wars in Afghanistan during the past 2 decades, this intimate account of one young woman's life will help put it in a human prospective. As more women are victimised in the streets and in their own homes, Zoya and her grandmother decide to take refuge in Pakistan. Considering the venomous hate-mail she & RAWA received from American supporters & former friends after 9/11, it is understandable and very sad that they cannot afford to trust anyone.

I found the first part of the book more interesting than the last, as Zoya describes her life as a lively little girl playing in the streets of Kabul and as the beloved only child of educated parents. One day her father, and somewhat later, her mother simply disappear.

Her resistance to these two regimes through RAWA is brave and principled. Friends in RAWA place her in a school and she becomes liberated with knowledge. This is an OK story, although I prefer My Forbidden Face, another Afghan woman's story.

Zoya loses both parents, probably to the Mujalideen. She refuses to leave her countrymen and lives in a refugee camp. Then she is forced to flee and her opposition to the Taliban makes up the latter part of this book.Hers is a difficult position.

I read this story about Zoya, the young Afghan woman and her story of refuge in Pakistan and trips into Afghanistan. The Soviet regime was probably the best in representing women in the society, but of course they were invaders and Zoya was not happy about their occupation of the country.This is a pretty basic story detailing the crimes of the Mujalideen and the Taliban. Her life is spent for the betterment of her countrymen, including women.I like the other book better, but this is an OK read about the difficulties faced by Afghan women.

Zoya's comments about the Mujalideen being as bad as the Taliban has some truth. It goes to show that Afghan society is very traditional in the sense of repressing woman throughout society.

Zoya is a true hero and inspiration. I always knew how awful the Taliban was, but I never knew from an individual's personal experience what it was REALLY like to live there. Zoya's graphic, heroic and saddening story told with such detail brings you to a life, I would say you "could just imagine", but I can't imagine that life. There is one line in the book that I will never forget, and I believe it is how Zoya truelly loves and feels for her country. Under the control of the Taliban, you will read of the most inhumane, torturous treatment. Having grown up with the priviledges of living in the United States one can only imagine the devestation this amazing young woman has gone through in her short, inspiring life.

"The bleeding wound" Gorbachav called it. This incredible young woman has done so much for the woman and people of Afghanistan, helping refugees, teaching women to read and write in a country where 90% of the women are illiterate, spreading the words of freedom, where her life can be taken at any time. At the tender age of 7, this courageous girl already started her early beginnings helping her mother work for RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan). The taking of lives. It is a line from an old Afghan folklore "I am ready to die for my love, but I want my love to be ready to die for my country." This is the passion Zoya lives with on her crusade to make life better for people in Afghanistan. Living in a country that had been overtaken by the Russians in what they called "the puppet regime", one couldn't imagine that life could get worse in this destitute country, ravaged by war and poverty.

orphaned at a young age, under two controlling fundamentalist Moslem regimes, life in Afghanistan only seems to grow worse.

an example to live by, a great inside look into an awful time in afghanistans history. zoyas entire life has been uprooted and yet she has such a strong heart and mind and will not let her people suffer alone, he courage and strength is a guide to those who have equally or more suffered and lost all theyve ever had. this book will also take you into pakistan where many refugees fled, and zoya continued to be a help to many people. zoyas story is a tale of one girl whose mother was an advocate for womens rights, and she followed suit after her mothers death and after discouraging life changes. living under the taliban was a historically tragic event for all women who endured this horrific regime that ruled afghanistan without mercy or compassion for women or their rights.