Afghan women, as a group, I think their suffering has been equaled by very few other groups in recent world history.

She thought of Aziza's stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.

Marriage can wait, education cannot.

In Kabul, hot running water had been like fathers, a rare commodity.

Dr. Bashiri, if I ever want to put a curse in someone, I say, 'May God give you a restaurant.

The story of what has happened to women in Afghanistan, however, is a very important one, and fertile ground for fiction.

Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end…crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis (nomads).