My Forbidden Face

Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. She dreamed of one day of becoming a journalist, she was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Her father was in the import/export business and her mother was a doctor.

Then in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. From that moment, Latifa, just 16 years old became a prisoner in her own home. Her school was closed. Her mother was banned from working. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out a window - were no longer hers. She was now forced to wear a chadri.

My Forbidden Face provides a poignant and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope.

Earlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group.

“This thoughtful and affecting account...questions the complacency of Western feminism which has forgotten the many women across the world who still have nothing.-- DAILY MAIL”

Her descriptions of watching videos in secret, listening to the radio in terror lest she be caught and hovering on the edge of a black hole of depression during what should have been the liveliest years of her life give a very human face to the known facts of how the most repressive government on the planet operated. - IRISH INDEPENDENT

A salutary read for any Western woman, and one that makes you appreciate the freedoms we often take for granted. - GLAMOUR

A poweful and poetic account of life under the Taliban. - DAILY TELEGRAPH

This thoughtful and affecting account...questions the complacency of Western feminism which has forgotten the many women across the world who still have nothing. - DAILY MAIL

In May 2001, Latifa & her parents escaped Afghanistan & were brought to Europe in an operation organized by a French-based Afghan resistance group & Elle Magazine. She speaks Persian and is learning English and French. Latifa is not her real name.

Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980. She dreamed of one day of becoming a journalist, she was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Her father was in the import/export business and her mother was a doctor.Then in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. From that moment, Latifa, just 16 years old became a prisoner in her own home. Her school was closed. Her mother was banned from working. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out a window - were no longer hers. She was now forced to wear a chadri. My Forbidden Face provides a poignant and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope. Earlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group.

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