In My Father's Country by Saima Wahab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This biography is an interesting view into Pashtun Afghan culture from an author whose viewpoint is possibly unique. Very important to understanding how gender, Afghan culture, and Muslim religion interact in this crucially important region of the world.
One thing that I really got out of reading this is a picture of how badly the United States screwed up its operations in Afghanistan, not because the soldiers involved were ill-intentioned, but simply because nobody told them what they needed to know or provided them with the resources needed to do the job. The blatant incompetence of most of the translators hired by the military, and the utter unawareness of this widespread incompetence by the contractors that supervised them, is especially striking.
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