Sewing Circles of Herat

Christina Lamb, the author of The Sewing Circles of Herat, returned to Afghanistan to see how things have changed in the two years after the fall of the Taliban. The women who took part in the undergound literature classes (under the pretense that they were sewing) now have access to schools. Leila, a woman who was part of the group, now attends classes at Herat University, though the books that her department has access to fit on one shelf. And warlords continue to rule over the region.

Lamb concludes that the situation in Herat has left Leila and her friends “strangely subdued.” She says that when she asked if the “sewing circle” had written any more stories, Leila responded: “Just one, about a crazy man who never stops fighting. We thought freedom would be better than this.”