Walking the Precipice: Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781558615861)

An "enthralling" memoir of a woman who risked her life to help a people under siege and a country caught between freedom and oppression (Publishers Weekly--starred review).

In 1990, sixty-five-year-old activist and grandmother Barbara Bick traveled with a women's delegation to Afghanistan for what she thought would be her last great adventure. Instead, Bick forged deep friendships with her Afghan hosts--only to watch in horror as the Taliban took over most of the country and instituted fiercely anti-woman policies.

Eleven years later, at age 76, Bick returned to Afghanistan, travelling to the region controlled by the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban militia. In early September 2001, Bick walked out of a compound where militia leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was also staying. Minutes later, Taliban infiltrators assassinated Massoud--a prelude to the al Qaeda attacks on the United States.

As the US government became deeply involved in Afghanistan, Bick decided to return once again to see how women were faring under the new government. In 2004, she was one of the few Western women able to bring years of experience to understanding the country's trauma.

Walking the Precipice gives new insight into the people, politics, and culture of a country that is on everyone's radar--for its beauty, and for its tragic place history.

Author: Barbara Bick
ISBN-10: 1558615865
ISBN-13: 9781558615861
Publisher: Feminist Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2009
Pages: 152
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 01/01/2009 pg. 41
Multicultural Review 07/01/2009 pg. 63
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2009 pg. 47