The Sewing Circles of Herat by Lamb, Christina - 2002

New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2002. Book. Fine. Hardcover. First Edition. xvii, [vi], 338pp, double-page map, family tree of Durrani dynasty, more than seventy five photo illustrations, bibliography, index. 8vo/21.5cm. Cloth backed-boards gilt, light wear, minor soil, internally fine. Christina Lamb is an energetic and perspicacious British journalist who had been in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation and returned in 2001 after the ouster of the succeeding despots, the Taliban. She visited everyone who had a leading role from Taliban commanders and the director of their training school in Pakistan to Ismael Khan the warlord of Herat to the former king Zahir Shah and the present leader Hamid Karzai who she had known in the eighties. The title refers to the secret political and educational groups who met under the guise of sewing circles in Taliban governed Herat. Though a sad and somewhat discouraging book, her blunt and incisive questions of leading personalities especially regarding the role of the Taliban and Pakistan provide some perceptive insights into future possibilities..