Åsne Seierstad, translated by Ingrid Christopher
The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, recounts the four months Seierstad lived with a bookseller and his family in Kabul in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban.
Seierstad is a Norwegian journalist who reported on Afghanistan. In the Forward to the book, she describes her meeting with Sultan Khan, the bookseller, a man passionate about art and literature. He discloses the measures he took to safeguard books from those who sought to destroy them. Seierstad is so taken by him that she asks to be a guest in his home to write a book about his family. He agrees. And so Seierstad settles in for four months in Sultan’s home with his mother, his two wives, and his children.
As a guest in the Sultan family household, Seierstad observes the life of a middle-class Afghan family. Afghanistan’s gender segregation and gendered codes of behavior did not apply to her as a Westerner. Garnering a unique perspective, she is privy to the cloistered lives of Afghan women and attends their women only gatherings while also being able to circulate freely among men.
Seierstad delivers a fascinating glimpse into the daily routines of Afghan women. The chapter Billowing, Fluttering, Winding describes the experience of women in their burkas as they weave through the marketplace, purchasing goods. And the chapter The Smell of Dust vividly describes the relaxed atmosphere in the women-only hammam where women of all ages, shapes, and sizes scrub away Afghanistan’s dirt and dust from one another’s naked bodies. Mostly, though, women’s lives are consumed with the daily grind of fetching water, cooking, cleaning, sweeping, doing laundry, mending clothes, and catering to the needs of male relatives.
Poverty, starvation, bribery, and cruelty are woven into the fabric of life. People resort to tragic and desperate measures to provide food for their starving families. Beggars with broken limbs are ubiquitous. The children go to school in tattered, hand-me-down clothes. Severe beatings are meted out by authority figures, including the male heads of families. And women have exclusive responsibility as standard bearers for family morality. Burdened with maintaining family honor, they suffer brutal repercussions should there be even a hint the honor has been breached. Meanwhile, males are allowed free rein.
Evidence of Afghanistan’s patriarchal structure is on full display. As the male head of the family, Sultan Khan requires and receives unequivocal obedience from family members, including sons. He controls all aspects of their lives and decisions. Women, restricted in movement and opportunity, are treated as commodities to be exploited, bartered, and exchanged.
Seierstad paints a compelling portrait of life in an Afghan family. She aims to erase herself from the picture by reporting on what she sees and hears. But her objectivity occasionally lapses. Instead of reporting, she mediates and interprets. This begs the question of authenticity. How much of what she infers is authentic, and how much is due to her Western lens projecting itself on the situation? Why did she presume to speak for Afghan women? Why not provide them with a platform to speak for themselves?
As an outsider looking in, Seierstad’s perspective diminishes the complex social, economic, and cultural context of a situation. At times her approach is superficial, condescending, patronizing, and judgmental. It occasionally smacks of a critique from a position of privilege. This is unfortunate since it detracts from what would otherwise have been a compelling book.
Recommended with reservations.