Comments on: Bookseller of Kabul: She said, he said

By: Fouad

Fouad — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 17:45:45 +0000

I read the book, by mere coincidence when i simply bumped into it on a Teheran street bookseller.

I personally loved it, especially because it was biased! I am a Muslim boy, from a similarily conservative familly background, and have lived -and relate- to much of what Asne mentioned throughout her account of the Khan familly, who turned out to be the Rais one.

Im sure the book will only add to the misunderstanding of Islam and Muslim culture in the west, but it sure helped me rethink a dozen things/practices/beliefs over and over.

The book is a success if it falls in the hands of an “easterner,” and a further curse on tolerance in the hands of a “westerner”

however, the question was: where does the journalists’ job stop? Was she meant to merely “report” the lives of the typical Afghan familly. or was she meant to add her personal touch, which in some cases is a very valid human prespective, in others a clash-of-cultures and a clear-cut bias.

I was wondering if anyone had, by any chance, a means of communicating with either Asne Seierstad, the Rais familly, or their Leila’s lover “KARIM” who is supposidly studying only streets away from my house at Al-Azhar.

I would be very grateful if you could at all pass any of these contacts on.

PS: does anyone know wether Rais’ book is on the market by now or not? please tell me if it is anytime soon

mailto:anthropolotique@hotmail.com

By: Judy

Judy — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 01:11:55 +0000

I think Seierstad does an admirable job of telling the stories without interjecting her own view. Judgment is left to the reader. I would think that if one from a different cultural background (e.g, a fundamentalist Islamic one) read the book, they would have an entirely different reaction to it than I did.

However, trying to look at this from the point of view of Rais/”Khan”, I can see that he didn’t expect Seierstad to write what she did! That just isn’t the way he would expect a woman to behave – it would be unheard of.

I thought this was a great book.

By: Sarah Spikes

Sarah Spikes — Thu, 20 May 2004 13:30:58 +0000

Mr. Rais is obviously a gold digger. The book doesn’t even use his name, and yet he wants to sue for libel? Please. Surely he knew it was possible her understanding of the family and the country would be different from his – even likely. Her book has raised public awareness of Afghanistan tremendously – and shown things westerners will find both great and sad. If Rais cared as much about his country as he claims, he’d be happy more people care now than ever before her book, and he’d stop trying to get money out of her for himself.