Sharing The Good News

It seems I am something of a hit in the UK. First, the excerpt in the New York Post almost immediately appeared across the pond in the Daily Mail (UK). Today, The Lady magazine (Britain's oldest weekly women's magazine, published since 1885!), described An American Bride in Kabul as "a harrowing personal history that reads like a novel…(Chesler's) fluid, evocative style and use of the present tense make you feel like you are the young bride herself, taking in the city's sights, sounds, and smells. This is a study of women's rights and the psychology of Afghan culture."

Thank you ljewoma Onweluzu—this reviewer really "got" my book. Well, almost. I was never forced to wear a burqa. Can you imagine me doing so?

Today, I am also in the UK's Jewish Telegraph in an interview which pretty much got everything right. This is the first reviewer who noted that I write about Afghanistan's alliance with Hitler's Nazi regime; and that Afghanistan had sheltered Nazis after the Second World War. Thank you Simon Yaffee.

Today, I am also in the New Jersey Jewish Standard. Joanne Palmer titled the interview: "A Modern Cassandra Speaks." Well, what can I say? What haven't I said? Just this: I am filled with gratitude for Palmer for her passionate and loving interview and for the elevated conversation we had when she came to my home.

This very weekend, an article that I've written for the UK's Big Issue may appear as will a review of Bride in the Boston Globe. And I may appear on the airwaves as well.

But, what I really want to write about is a new film by Deeyah: Banaz: A Love Story. It is about one honor (horror) killing in the UK. Banaz's high crime was that she left her arranged marriage to a very violent Iraqi Kurdish man, moved back home, and then dared to fall in love. For this—and for this alone—her father and uncle ordered three male cousins to murder her. Banaz had gone to the UK police five times and begged for help. She understood what she was up against. The police did not. Afterwards, her older sister, who had long departed this family and who lives in hiding and under police protection, testified against her family. The UK police obtained life sentences for the men who ordered the hit—and, in an unprecedented move, extradited the actual killers back to the UK from Iraq where they were found, boasting and laughing about what they had done. These men are now also serving life sentences. I may write about this moving, sobering, informative, heart-breaking film in the future. Please watch it. I want to thank Raquel Evita Saraswati for calling this film to my attention. The entire one hour film is on You Tube here.