Afghan's Lipstick Warriors: First Chronicle (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798988823056)

In a secluded Afghanistan mountain village, in the shadows of the Hindu Kush, Saarah Khalil was born and came of age, filled with the fairest of childhood dreams and mostly unaware of the endless wars and tribal strife taking place beyond her sheltered world.

Then one day, the Taliban came and everything changed. Faced with the prospect of a forced marriage to a Taliban warlord, Saarah flees to a women's shelter in Kabul, surrounded now by a bustling city and filled with dread over what may befall her abandoned family.

Invited one night to a seminar on women's rights, Saarah meets Kashm, a fellow refugee from Taliban oppression, who proudly informs Saarah that she is about to join a fledgling band of women warriors and take up arms in the fight for freedom. Saarah initially recoils at the thought of guns and spilling blood, but when she learns that her father has been killed by the Taliban, she realizes she can no longer ignore the harsh new reality facing her life, and that of all women in Afghanistan. All their hopes and dreams will be rendered meaningless if the Taliban succeed in retaking power.

Her reluctance turned to fiery determination, Saarah goes off to war and the heroics of these Lipstick Warriors soon come to the attention of the CIA, which proceeds to do everything in its clandestine power to support this nascent resistance, while right down the street in its Kabul embassy, the State Department does everything possible on its end to stamp out what the administration views as a thorn in the side of its neat and orderly withdrawal plans.

When this band of courageous women is cornered by a superior Taliban force, in what appears to be a hopeless battle, CIA operative Clayton Dorn goes completely off the reservation in an effort to save them, aided by his Kabul station chief and a salty assortment of special forces mavericks. With the Taliban closing in and corrupt Afghani politicians conspiring everywhere against their imperious American counterparts, you have the ingredients for both a stirring final scene and heartwarming tale of redemption.