I like a good biography once in a while. I have learned about other cultures and life outside of my own country this way. I checked out and read three biographies of brave women recently. One was set in Afghanistan, one in Iran, and one in Iraq. All three gave me a sense of what it was to be female outside of my own culture. They made me glad to live in the United States.
The first one is My Forbidden Face: Growing up under the Taliban: a Young Woman's Story. This biography in many ways was the most depressing. A young unmarried teenager, who lived in Kabul, had no freedom outside her own home for four years from 1997 to 2001. If she went out, she had to be accompanied by a male. I can not write of the horrifying things she lived through under the Taliban. Read the book to find out.
The second was An Enduring Love by Farah Pahlavi. This story is totally different. This is both a biography of the last shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1919-1980, and a memoir by Farah Pahlavi, his wife. The focus of the memoir was the years from 1959 to 1980. Before they were forced out of Iran she did much for the emancipation of women. The glamour and heartbreak of those years came across clearly.
The third was Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival under Saddam Hussein. The author is Jean Sasson. I would recommend any book written by Ms. Sasson. In this book we have the story of Mayada whose ancestors are famous in Iraq. She knew and interacted with Saddam Hussein. This still did not spare her from being thrown in the prison of Baghdad's secret police. Mayada was in a cell with 17 other women. This is their story.