Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Bookseller of Kabul...


"Khost is a town without women... They lead a life locked in their backyard; they never go out, shop, or even visit. The law of purdah reigns, the total segregation of women." Asne Seierstad from The Bookseller of Kabul.
Think of the implications of this for they are terrible and vast in a way that has destroyed a once flourishing economy and a beautiful culture. Once these areas of the world were centers of learning.. now they are mostly rubble. What is gained by the oppression of women? Nothing is gained and only the devastation of an entire society is accomplished. Sadly it has gone on so long now and people have become so uneducated that they no longer know what they can be because they don't know from what they have come. We must be famililiar with our own history.
By contrast, this wisdom would go a long way to saving the world..
"First, educate your hands and your minds... To you young women may I suggest that you get all the education you can. Train yourselves to make a contribution to the society in which you will live. There is an essence of the divine in the improvement of the mind. “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.” (D&C 93:36.) “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.” (D&C 130:18.)" and this..."In the process of educating your minds, stir within yourselves a greater sensitivity to the beautiful, the artistic, and the cultivation of the talent you possess, be it large or small." Gordon B. Hinckley, Rise to the Stature of the Divine within You 1989.
This book as well as others about this area of the world break my heart.