
Kabuliwalar
Bangali Bou detailed the
harsh life inflicted on women in rural Afghanistan. In 1998, Banerjee talked to Outlook India about her book. She explained it told how the Taliban forced her to close down her business: "They also listed out dos and don'ts. The burkha was a necessity.
Listening to the radio or playing a tape recorder was banned. Women were
not allowed to go to the shops. They were even prohibited from stepping out
from their houses unless accompanied by their husbands. All women had
to have the names of their husbands tattooed on their left hand.
Virtually all interaction between men and women outside the confines of
their own homes was banned."(See outlookindia.com)
Banerjee
followed up Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou
with more volumes of memoir, and
general commentary: Talibani Atyachar, Deshe O Bideshe
(Taliban Atrocities In Afghanistan And Abroad), Mullah Omar, Taliban
O Ami (Mullah Omar,
Taliban And I) Ek Borno Mithya Noi
(Not A Word Is A Lie) and Sabhyatar Sesh Punyabani (The Swansong Of Civilisation).
According to India Today, Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou initially sold seven lakh copies, including “over one lakh copies of a somewhat amateurish English version.” 1 lakh = 100,000. I haven’t been able to track down a mainstream, easily available English language translation of Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou, or translations of Banerjee's other titles but I hope her work does now find an international publisher, able to distribute her books, and to promote them. This butchered woman sounds like an author we all should read.