Chapter One

Kamila. Jan, I’m honored to present you with your certificate.”
The small man with graying hair and deeply
set wrinkles spoke with pride as he handed the young
woman an official-looking document. Kamila took the
paper and read:
This is to certify that Kamila Sidiqi has successfully
completed her studies at Sayed Jamaluddin Teacher
Training Institute.
“Thank you, Agha,” Kamila said. A snow-melting smile
broke out across her face. She was the second woman in
her family to finish Sayed Jamaluddin’s two-year course;
her older sister Malika had graduated a few years earlier
and was now teaching high school in Kabul. Malika,
however, had not had the constant shellings and rocket
fire of the civil war to contend with as she traveled back
and forth to class.
Kamila clasped the treasured document. Her head-
scarf hung casually and occasionally slipped backward
to reveal a few strands of her shoulder-length wavy
brown hair. Wide-legged black pants and dark, pointy
low heels peeked out from under the hem of her floor-
length coat. Kabul’s women were known for stretching
the sartorial limits of their traditional country, and
Kamila was no exception. Until the leaders of the anti-
Soviet resistance, the Mujahideen (“holy warriors”), un-
seated the Moscow-backed government of Dr. Najibullah
in 1992, many Kabuli women traveled the cosmopolitan
capital in Western clothing, their heads uncovered. But
now, only four years later, the Mujahideen defined women’s
public s