Much has happened since the Russians left. In some ways, Afghanistan has slid a thousand years back into the past.
        In the last month, I've received letters from RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Something is very wrong over there, they say. RAWA has requested that I write a second novel on Afghanistan, this one to show the brutal and inhumane treatment of women by the Taliban and the fundamentalists presently controlling the country. The treatment of women in most Muslim countries is dismal. In Afghanistan, it is much worse.
        Incredible as is sounds, there was talk a few years ago by the Afghan intelligentsia of asking the Russians to come back! At least under the Russians, females went to school, attended and taught at universities. They were doctors, lawyers, and--to some men's complete dismay--politicians. Now there's a whole generation of little girls growing up who cannot read or write and who can only count on their fingers. Females cannot work. They cannot leave their house unless accompanied by a male relative, and they must be covered from head to toe when they do. 
        When the Russians left, the Fundamentalists came in and then the Taliban, who now control most of the country. Their interpretation of religious laws, Islamic scholars say, is a thousand years out of touch.
        Go see these brave ladies http://www.rawa@rawa.org and perhaps sign their petition to the United Nations and Congress asking for a resolution on human rights and democracy in Afghanistan. Prominent women all over the world have signed it.

                                   Y. L. H.