ZOYA'S STORY An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom

Zoya committed her life to the cause of women's rights in Afghanistan at 14, when both parents were assassinated for political activities. Her life story is provocative; Zoya's position is predictably anti-Taliban, yet subtly anti-American. The reader's Afghani pronunciations sound rich and authentic, but comprehensible. Her vocal characterizations vividly paint Afghani widows exhausted by a lifetime of cruelty, as well as idealistic young women energized by revolutionary ideas of democracy. The reader's crisp voice doesn't succumb to undue sentimentality or political posturing. Unfortunately, the epilogue interview with Zoya is of poor technical quality, but it creates an image of her huddled in a safehouse, seeking both refuge and publicity for the cause. N.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]