The finger cut, to save the hand.

Afghanistan has always been sort of a fractured nation, very tribal, where the countryside and the distant provinces have been run by custom, by tribal law and by tribal leaders rather than edicts from the central government in Kabul.

You don't order someone to polish your shoes one day and call them 'sister' the next.

It is now your duty to hone that talent, because a person who wastes his God-given talents is a donkey.

If you were the poor, suffering was your currency.

War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.

At the door , she made him promise to go without goodbyes .She closed the door on him . Laila leaned her back against it , shaking against his pounding fists , one arm gripping her belly and a hand across her mouth , as he spoke throughout the door and promised that he would come back for her . She stood there until he tired , until he gave up , and then she listened to his uneven footsteps until they faded , until all was quiet , save for the gunfire cracking in the hills and her own heart thudding in her belly , her eyes , her bones .