Three Women of Herat - Softcover

Veronica Doubleday first went to Afghanistan in the mid-1970s (the last year before the Soviet invasion) with her husband who was researching Central Asian music. Picturesque, mountainous and underdeveloped, this mysterious land was emerging from its obscure past but retained a traditional Islamic way of life all of its own. They made their home in Herat, an ancient city on the traditional crossroads between Iran, the northern steppes and the Indian sub-continent. Intrigued by fleeting glimpses of women swathed from head to foot in the burqa like 'dark, wingless, sightless bird', the author eventually adopted the veil and took the daunting step across the threshold of the segregated world of purdah. To her surprise, she found that the women were by no means meekly submissive or unaware of their situation. They took great delight in each other's company and were able to exert a good deal of influence on their menfolk through the management of family affairs and their socially important role of marriage-arranging. This book is a touching and perceptive account of the very special friendships which the author formed with three young mothers who welcomed her into their homes, sharing their daily lives and preoccupations, and teaching her their custom, songs and music. Mariam, charming, intelligent and with a happy, trusting marriage, gladly conformed to her traditional role as female head of a large extended family. Mother of Nebi, trapped in a restrictive marriage, ascribed her severe depression to 'madness' caused by jinns, and channeled her frustrated energies into divination through spirit possession. Shirin enjoyed unusual independence as a famous singer from a class of professional musicians despised as near-prostitutes because they uncovered their faces to perform in mixed company. Gradually the author came to respect the women's warmth and the strength of their faith in Islam, and to appreciate the luxury of female privacy from men, the unhurried security of their lives and the curious seductiveness of being 'invisible'. Since her last visit to Herat, the city has been badly damaged by Soviet bombs. Veronica Doubleday fears that her friends must have suffered terribly and that she will never see them again. In a moving epilogue she describes her visit to refugee families in Peshwar near the border with Pakistan, where women, cut off from homeland and kin, suffer intense physical and emotional deprivation in strictly enforced purdah. Three Women of Herat is both a unique historical record of a disappearing culture and an elegant testament to the women who gave her the rare gift of true friendship.