My Forbidden Face

I have been reading “My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story” by Latifa. As I was reading this story I was remembering an article I had read in a magazine a few years back, I found it ironic that the article that I had read was the one that got this girl exiled from her country. This story talks about how the Taliban captured Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 27, 1996. Until September 11, 2001, most countries ignored or even tolerated the Taliban’s oppressive regime. Young Latifa is growing up in Afghanistan, living the same type of life that we enjoy and take for granite everyday. This book is her journal and observations of the life that was taken away from her versus the life she was forced to lead as the Taliban systematically tried to eradicate women from society and Afghanistan.

The Taliban banishes all signs of their past and leaves them with virtually no future. She calls out the Taliban's hypocrisy and denounces them from the religion of Islam. And Latifa, although oppressed, still manages to defy the Taliban although to serious risk to herself and family. When I finished this book I wanted to do all I could to support and defend Afghan people, especially the women who have lived under the Taliban's oppression. This Book made me feel I guilty for having such a good life, with all of its pitfalls, while women were being raped, murdered, hidden, oppressed and otherwise abused in another country. I recommend this book because it demonstrates the very humanity of the faceless nation