Afghanistan

Beautiful slideshow of Afghanistan on The Atlantic's website, based off of Sarah Chayes's feature story on "How the author helped Afghans build a thriving soap and body-oil business—and overcame the incompetence of America’s aid establishment" in the current issue.

voices in prayers for peace

Dec 12, 2007---New Delhi - In the heart of southern Afghanistan, hundreds of women gathered Wednesday to do something extraordinary: They raised their voices in prayers for peace.

The idea of women doing anything aside from tending to home and family is fairly shocking in provinces like Kandahar and Helmand, where the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban control most of the countryside. Yet the assembling of an estimated 1,000 women in six southern provinces is a compelling development, women's rights experts say.

From southern Afghanistan's voiceless women come 1,000 prayers for peace
At extraordinary meetings Wednesday, southern Afghan women prayed and told stories about how the war has torn their families apart.

"Taxi to the Dark Side" Los Angeles Times