Burqas, Foulards et Minijupes

"It’s a riveting book, a series of interviews with women in Afghanistan who lived through the Russian invasion, the civil war and the Taliban. They are incredibly moving narratives about things so awful that you almost can’t get your mind around them. For instance, during the civil war girls were taken from their school and forced to marry military commanders. On the positive side, women became teachers during the Taliban because they needed to support their families. It’s an intimate look at the resilience of women during war. I talk about this at the beginning of The Dressmaker. War puts women in unusual, uncomfortable places and challenges them to find a way around the problems they’re facing. While war is raging women move into positions of greater responsibility, just as women did during World War II in the US, as emblemised by that famous image of Rosie the Riveter . Women moved into work that was once closed to them, to pay the bills and meet the needs of their country. The question is, what happens when things go back to “normal”? How do women keep the rights that they have taken for themselves for the sake of their families? That’s an open question and a challenge women face all over the world. But telling and reading stories of women in war is one way to make sure that progress made during conflict is not reversed. Or at least not forgotten."