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Sally Armstrong
Author of Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan
 Sally Armstrong first traveled to Afghanistan
in 1997, long before the country was drawn into America's war on terror. Armstrong's purpose
was quietly audacious: to document the abuses against women and girls perpetrated
by the Taliban. The Taliban's fundamentalist interpretation
of Islam resulted in many misfortunes for women: they were barred from education and medical treatment, freedoms regarding social and personal life were severely restricted and breaches of law were punished without mercy.
Veiled Threat documents Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taliban. In the new Afghanistan, Armstrong finds a society inching toward freedom and democracy. She acknowledges importance of change in the country. At the same time, she cautiously notes that the lingering influence of the Taliban is more pervasive than anyone would like to admit, and the liberation of women and girls is far from complete.
But more than merely a ledger of injustice, Veiled Threat is a testament to hope in the light of uncertainty. Armstrong convincingly demonstrates that the Koran calls for equal rights for women, and she chastises Arab regimes that have perverted the teachings of Islam for the purpose of misogyny.
She also has sharp words for the international community, which knowingly turned a blind eye to the plight of Afghan women.
Sobering in its revelations, the book chronicles acts of resistance both great and small: from Dr. Samar's rebellious decision to run underground women's hospitals and girls' schools to the stories of ordinary women who first cautiously discarded their burqas. For all of the thoughtful news coverage Afghanistan has received, no account is as committed and compassionate as Armstrong's.
GEMS had a few questions of Armstrong:
What interested you in Afghanistan?
When the Taliban took over in September of 1996 their misogynistic edicts put women under house arrest virtually overnight. It was amazing to me that the Taliban was able to do it and that they were getting away with it. I felt it my duty as a journalist to cover those happenings.
Have you covered similar stories in places other than Afghanistan?
I've traveled to Croatia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia, and many other places where women are treated as second-class. The stories of these women are horrific, but through it all there are also stories of women with amazing amounts of courage. The tragic part is the fact that the international community chose to look the other way because it is viewed as a cultural issue,
not a criminal issue.
Why do think the international community chooses to look the other way?
Womens' issues are largely discounted everywhere. This is so in spite of the fact that studies show where women are treated with justice there is better health, more wealth and less unrest. Unfortunately, the international community's silence was a form of consent. It permitted the repression to continue and made it acceptable for the women in Afghanistan to become forced into an invisible existence. I think that crime is every bit the equal of
the Taliban's.
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