Reviewed by Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
Phyllis
Chesler, who set out to write An American Bride in Kabul
as a memoir of her life as the young, Jewish-American wife of a wealthy Muslim
in Kabul in the 1960s has penned something much more: an analysis of the plight
of women in the Muslim world.
Chelser was a wide-eyed college student in 1961 when she met the
man she calls Abdul-Kareem, scion of one of Afghanistan's wealthiest families.
He was charming, elegant, romantic, and Muslim. She was a bright young Orthodox
Jew from Brooklyn, eager for adventure, lured by the exotic. Abdul-Kareem
offered both; and when he asked her to marry him and join him in his privileged
life in his home country of Afghanistan, she joyously said "yes."
But the fantasy she envisioned was nothing like what she found
once they arrived at his family compound in Kabul. The first sign of this
reality comes when she is ordered to relinquish her passport on arrival in
Afghanistan, leaving her effectively stateless. As a woman, she is now
property, belonging not to a nation or a people, but to the man to whom she's
wed. And things will only grow more horrific. [more... ]
Some
Excellent Recent Reviews of An American Bride in Kabul:
About the author: Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita
Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York, the
best-selling author of 15 books, and psychotherapist. Chesler has lectured and
organized women's rights and human rights campaigns all over the world and has
also appeared on numerous national and international media outlets. Her
writings have been featured in The Washington Post, The International Herald
Tribune, The Times of London, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Israel
National News, The New York Times, and in the Jewish and Israeli media.
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