Afghánci Tři příběhy z jedné země

Afghanistan? It's jihad, sharia, opium and wild cannabis. Yes, those are the stereotypes. Now imagine, for example, an Islamic feminist. Isn't that impossible? Not at all. This is also one of the many faces of Afghanistan, which we have come to know intimately thanks to the great Norwegian reporter Åsne Seierstad. In her latest book, she revisits the scene and explores what happened to the country after the Americans left.

First Afghanistan clashed with the Soviet Union, then internal strife and civil war destroyed it, then came the heavy hand of the Islamists and finally war with the US. How did ordinary people live during these turbulent decades?

In her latest book, The Afghans, popular Norwegian reporter Åsne Seierstad returns to Afghanistan twenty years after she wrote the phenomenal The Bookseller of Kabul. She tells us the stories of those who had to flee from the Taliban and those who stayed in Afghanistan. The book is an intimate portrait of three people with different fates and their families, friends and acquaintances - and it is also the story of a country in endless struggle.

Jamila rejected the fate she was destined to suffer and despite her disability and the hostility of her surroundings, she studied, fought for women's rights and tried to change the direction of her country.

Bashir's life has always been dominated by the desire to fight. Despite his youth, he joined the war and distinguished himself in many actions against the "infidels".

Ariana was not interested in the Taliban. School, education and new knowledge were her whole world. And Justin Bieber. Even though the Taliban had crossed her life plans, she never gave up hope for change.

Through the vivid stories of her heroes and heroines, Åsne Seierstad shows us not only the modern history of Afghanistan and the winding fates of its citizens, but also the terrifyingly rapid rise of the Taliban dictatorship after the Americans leave in 2021.

Åsne Seierstad doesn't back down from heavy topics. She has proven this not only with her book One of Us, in which she attempts to grasp the personality of mass murderer Anders Breivik, but also with books in which she explores Afghanistan's past and present. Her latest report, The Afghans, is another remarkable piece of this puzzle, which will hopefully give us a glimpse of what the future of Afghanistan may hold.

Åsne Seierstad's book Afghans is published in the edition Cursed Reporters, translated by Eva Kecková.