The book opens in 1995 with Yacoobi on a bus bound for Afghanistan; she was returning to the country for the first time in more than two decades. She knew that her mission to set up clandestine schools for girls would almost certainly lead to her being “arrested, tortured, or killed on the spot” if she were discovered by the reigning Taliban regime. This harrowing anecdote sets the tone for the book, which blends a dire portrait of repression, extremism, and corruption in Afghanistan over the last half century with an inspirational story of the resilience of Afghan women. Although the author’s memoir offers evocative commentary on modern Afghan history and celebrates the people around the globe who fought alongside her, it’s her stirring personal story that makes it stand out. She was born in Herat, Afghanistan, in 1950 to parents who were unafraid to defy cultural traditions; for example, they married for love, instead of having arranged nuptials, and they supported the author’s educational journey from a young age. By the ’70s, the author had moved to California to attend college; she eventually received a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Early chapters effectively capture the experiences of an international student who realized that “no matter how liberal my parents had been, my upbringing was a lot more conservative than I had thought.” The bulk of the book effectively surveys her philanthropic work, which included writing and producing teacher-training guides that provided educators in Pakistan and surrounding countries with pedagogically sound approaches to teaching math, reading, writing, social studies, and other topics to girls. Yacoobi’s Afghan Institute of Learning would support dozens of underground schools throughout the ’90s and would expand further following the 2001 collapse of the Taliban regime. Blended with the author’s story is a learned, yet poignant, portrait of Afghan culture and a stirring defense of women’s rights.
