The Favored Daughter
|The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future
by Fawzia Koofi and Nadene Ghouri.
This book is a new experience for me. Over the years I have read a number of books on Islamic cultures and countries. Every single one of them was written from the point of view of either a Western journalist, a member of the relevant country’s upper class, or an academician. Those points of view are valuable and definitely worthy of attention. But what was missing for me — and is provided by Fawzia Koofi in her book — is the view of someone from an extremely rural and profoundly traditional background. Koofi has a particularly cogent viewpoint with respect to womens rights in afghanistan.
Koofi rose to become the first woman speaker of the Afghan Parliament, so we can say that she is now a member of the upper and educated class. But here’s a sense of her roots: She was born the nineteenth daughter of an important leader in the poorest part of Afghanistan, the province of Badakhshan. (Her father represented the province in the Afghan parliament.
Her mother, one of Fawzia Koofi’s father’s seven wives, was so distraught at giving birth to another daughter that she ordered Koofi placed out in the sun for 24 hours after birth, in the hopes that she would die. When Koofi did not die, her mother relented, feeling it was a message from Allah. Koofi ultimately grew to tremendously love and respect her mother, despite the fact that Koofi’s modern values would never allow her to contemplate such a thing for her own daughters (or anyone else’s).
It is also clear that Fawzia Koofi greatly respected her father, although she could not have loved him, as he only spoke directly to her once in her life, and that was to tell her to get out of his way. (He died when she was only four.) The reason: As a daughter, she was not valued in any way at all.
Her father also routinely beat her mother whenever she made the slightest error as a wife, for example in her cooking or other such thing. And he would sometimes beat her into unconsciousness. Yet both father and mother saw this as a sign of his love for her. The modern Koofi — the one writing this book — in no way approves of this behavior. But neither does it cause her to lose respect for her father, who did much for his village and his province, and ultimately died for his efforts. (Because her father was a representative to the national government, the mujahadeen murdered him in the early days of that movement.)
Dear Mrs. Koofi,
I am a 17-year old boy from Chenghai, Shantou, Guangdong, China. (Because I’m a Chinese who is poor in English, so there are some grammar mistakes in this letter. Hope you can understand my sincere heart!) After reading your book Letters to My Daughters (the name of Chinese edition is I Don’t Want You to Die Without Any Contribution), I realize that you are a good mother, like my mom. Your sincere words made me truly impressed! The pale words cannot express my deep respect to you! All my family members and my classmates especially I admire you so very much! Also, you are a good and responsible politician.
From your book, I firstly know that Afghanistan is a beautiful country where people are kind and the sceneries are colorful. Although Afghanistan used to suffer from wars. Before reading your book, I, also the people around me, always think that, Afghanistan is a country only full of wars and darkness. But your book changed my opinion. Through Afghan books especially yours, I really walk into a different Afghanistan.
In your book, you say the education is very important. I couldn’t agree more with you. In China, some children living in mountainous areas can’t get high education properly, so they have to be the farmers or the ordinary workers all their lives. Even in my hometown, Shantou, an open city, some old people still think that money is everything, education not. This makes me a little angry.
And you say that girls and women nearly had no rights in the past, I would say that it was the same in my hometown 30 years ago. So my mother says that she shares your pains.
So here I have some advice. First, government can set up an organization especially for children and women (Maybe such organizations have been set up in Afghanistan). Second, in some rich areas, let children go to school for free. Maybe it seems impossible, but it did work well in China. In some poor areas, government can send out some teachers to these local areas to help these children get the most basic knowledge, just like reading and writing. Third, is about healthcare. Regularly send out some doctors teams to the poor areas to spread the health knowledge and offer medical help. Last, strongly attack the terrorism! And establish a more perfect law system.
Hope my poor advice can give you just a little help!
All of my family members and my classmates and I know you are brave and hardworking. We all wish you realize your dream of becoming the first woman president of Afghanistan! And wish the good future your lovely daughters will have!
Truly hope you can reply me briefly in your precious time!
Yours,
Sincere,
Li Yixi
2015/8/6
Hi I want have your book how can I get it