She writes, 'We knew the Taliban were not far away. Latifa (who writes under a pseudonym) was a 16-year-old aspiring journalist when her brother rushed home one day in late 1996 with word that the white flag of the Taliban flew over their school and mosque. Readers who want to know what life was really like when the Taliban ruled Kabul should turn off CNN and read this book. Her voice captures a lost innocence, but also echoes her determination to live in freedom and hope.Įarlier this year, Latifa and her parents escaped Afghanistan with the help of a French-based Afghan resistance group. With painful honesty and clarity Latifa describes the way she watched her world falling apart, in the name of a fanatical interpretation of a faith that she could not comprehend. My Forbidden Face provides a poignant and highly personal account of life under the Taliban regime. The simplest and most basic freedoms - walking down the street, looking out a window - were no longer hers. From that moment, Latifa, just 16 years old became a prisoner in her own home. Then in September 1996, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul.

Her father was in the import/export business and her mother was a doctor. She dreamed of one day of becoming a journalist, she was interested in fashion, movies and friends. Latifa was born into an educated middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980.

My forbidden face summary