A memoir of an Afghani-American woman recounts her struggle to heal the rift between her Muslim and American belief systems, in a personal story that describes her arranged marriage at the age of seventeen to an older stranger, her ostracism for her pursuit of a divorce and college education, and her reconnections with her Muslim family in Afghanistan before and after the September 11 attacks. Original. 35,000 first printing.

"In a time when globalization is bringing people together, but cultural and religious divisions seem starker than ever, My War at Home should be required reading. This engaging memoir reveals the power of the human spirit in bridging even the widest divides." -- Swanee Hunt, former U.S. ambassador to Austria and current director of Harvard University's Women and Public Policy Program

Autorentext

Masuda Sultan

Klappentext

Born in Kandahar in 1978, Sultan fled to the United States at age five with her family. Raised in Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens, Sultan saw her life change when she was married by arrangement at the young age of seventeen to a virtual stranger fourteen years her senior -- a marriage she struggled to maintain and then hastily fought, eventually (after three years) being granted a divorce. This very divorce would become one of the first in her close-knit Afgan community, where the subject is considered rare and taboo. Sultan went on to graduate from college summa cum laude with a degree in economics, and in July 2001, she returned to Kandahar, to explore her family roots and find herself. There she met her relatives and surveyed the conservative provincial town where she was born. on return visit to afganistan, she discovered the tragic death of her relatives at the hands of American troops and began to seek answers. My War at Home is her memoir of self-discovery, family tradition, and life as a Muslim and feminist with political ideals. It speaks to the younger generation of Muslims in America as they struggle to resolve the ever-present inner conflict about what it means to be an American and a Muslim, while also examining the Muslim-American identity at both personal and political levels.