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Zoya's Story An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom By: John Follain and Rita Cristofari
1. Book’s Overall Context The action took place in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Starting in 1982 with a four year old girl named Zoya and ends in 2001. During this time in the United States, one of the most devastating and tragic events in our history happened, the attack on the twin towers in New York City by the Taliban. Also in Russia and Eastern Europe communism was coming to an end and the European Union was forming.
Summary:This book is about the life of a young girl named Zoya. She grew up in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She lived in a small four room mud house with her parents and Grandmother (an older woman not related who came to live with them after her husband died. Her parents were involved in secret organizations that fought against the cruelty to women, the (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan,) RAWA for one Zoya has never lived where there was no fighting. When she was born the Russians had invaded her country, then February 1989 the Afghan fundamentalist were fighting the Nejibullah regime. Then April 1992, the fundamentalist Mujahedeen had united. When Zoya was fourteen many things happened. First both her parents disappeared. Her father then some time later, her mother. It was a long time before she was told that her parents were killed by order from the fundamentalist Mujahedeen. Grandmother told Zoya they were leaving the next morning for Pakistan. After news about a young girl throwing herself from a fifth floor window rather than marry a soldier. Finally, she entered school for the first time. In 1994 the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Zoya decided she had enough school and wanted to start working for RAWA full time. She moved into a safe house and began a new type of school serving the RAWA. The summer of 1997 she had to buy her first burqa for a mission to her hometown, Kabul. Zoya had many missions to Kabul to gather information and take pictures for the world to know what was happening. Three years after Zoya began working for RAWA she was assigned to work at a refugee camp. Her job was to get the stories from the people coming into the camp. In February 2001, Zoya was invited to tell her story before a group of eighteen thousand people. She met Jane Fonda and Oprah Winfrey. She was met with a standing ovation and RAWA received more needed support. Zoya was on her way to Spain on September 1, 2001 when the Taliban attacked the twin towers. She fought to make the world understand that the Afghanistan people and the Taliban were not the same. November 2001 the Taliban were defeated by the Northern Alliance. This wasn't much better for the Afghan people. Zoya was twenty-three years old when she agreed to be interviewed for this book. She agreed as long as this book would, ''stand for the suffering of all Afghan women.''
2. Plot The main character is Zoya. There were several pivotal scenes. The first was when Zoya was seven and she got to go with her mother to distribute illegal papers. The next was when Zoya’s parents were killed and she and Grandmother left Kubal for Pakistan and she first attended school. The next was when Zoya decided she had enough school and wanted to work for the RAWA. The next pivotal scene was when Zoya started going on missions for RAWA. The scene that had the most impact on her life was the last when she began going on missions both in her hometown of Kubal and working in the refugee camp. She brought to world’s attention the cruelty that was suffered by her people, the women who were beaten and treated like non-human.
3. How True to Life is the Story? This story is true to life the historical time line is listed in the summary. There are many real people in this book, Zoya, the Taliban, bin Laden, and all the people she obtained stories from and about. All of the events are real and when the horror is described it brought chills to me. There is no inaccurate information that could be detected.
4. POV The author believes that all the events described are true. RAWA – Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan April 28, 1992, Grandmother said was a very black day. She said that a worse devil had just come to our country. A boy’s math problem, “If there are ten Jews and you kill five of them, how many are left?” “The Dance of the Dead Body” they would cut off the victim’s head, pour boiling oil on the neck to stop the bleeding and let the body drop where it would shake all over. The sports’ arena was used for public punishments, a man was caught stealing so in the middle of the arena he was tied down and his hand was cut off. After the event a young boy was caught on camera laughing and playing with the severed hand. To scare people and prevent them from supporting the anti-Taliban one warlord, gathered all the men 13 to 70 years old who were suspected to be anti-Taliban. About 300 men were slaughtered and one teenager was skinned alive. Zoya was invited to speak before the V-Day Movement sponsored event in Madison Square Gardens about the things she has seen. She entered the auditorium while Oprah Winfrey read the poem, “Under the Burqa.” The final event the author describes is Zoya’s reaction and handling of the people around her after the 9/11 attack on the twin towers.
