The lovers
Subtitle: Afghanistan's Romeo & Juliet : the true story of how they defied their families and escaped an honor killing
By: Rod Nordland
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 362
ISBN-13: 9780062378828
Subjects: Social conditions; Social life and customs; Man-woman relationships; Biography; Women
Description: "An astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women's rights in the Muslim world. Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender, had fallen in love. Defying their families, sectarian differences, cultural conventions, and Afghan civil and Islamic law, they ran away together only to live under constant threat from Zakia's large and vengeful family, who have vowed to kill her to restore the family's honor. They are still in hiding. Despite a decade of American good intentions, women in Afghanistan are still subjected to some of the worst human rights violations in the world. Rod Nordland, then the Kabul bureau chief of the New York Times, had watched these abuses unfold for years when he came upon Zakia and Ali, and has not only chronicled their plight, but has also shepherded them from danger. The Lovers will do for women's rights generally what Malala's story did for women's education. It is an astonishing story about self-determination and the meaning of love that illustrates, as no policy book could, the limits of Western influence on fundamentalist Islamic culture and, at the same time, the need for change."--provided by Amazon.com
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-346) and index.
Table of contents: title: Under the gaze of the Buddhas; title: Dead father's daughter; title: Zakia makes her move; title: A rabbi among the mullahs; title: A beautiful place to hide; title: Mystery benefactor; title: Honor hunters; title: The irreconcilables; title: Birds in a cage; title: Reluctant celebrities; title: Back to the Hindu Kush; title: Mullah Mohammad Jan; title: In the land of the bottom-feeders; title: A dog with no name.