Parallels

The number of parallels between The Colour of Milk and Fear of Beauty are many and stunning.

Both books focus on women raised in small farming communities, though one is set in 1831 England and the other is set in circa-2012 Afghanistan. The women are illiterate, find reason to learn how to read and write and tell their stories.  Men twist religious texts to control and abuse women. The protagonists are exceptionally intelligent, aware of the challenges for women and their communities. Their families resist discussing those challenges. Both authors toy with grammar to emphasize that these are new writers expressing their thoughts.

Most eerie are the final sentences for each book, the first one published in May 2012 for the UK and December 2012 for the US, the other drafted in 2009 and published in January 2013 for the US.

For Color of Milk: "and so I shall finish this very last sentence and i will blot my words where the ink gathers in the pools at the end of each letter. and then i shall be free. For Fear of Beauty: I have only one certainty in a world that never stops changing - that more must be learned and accomplished. This lack of certainty and the search are my freedom.

Education, the ability to place one's story in the context of our times, is liberating.

The major difference of the two novels? The Colour of Milk is bleak in how the protagonist Mary must take control. Fear of Beauty, in the modern setting, can afford to be more optimistic. Afghan women have role models elsewhere in the world.

To think what our forebears endured from unequal societies ... The author of Fear of Beauty highly recommends The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon.

Reeling in readers

Gratitude to Debbie Campoli for reviewing Fear of Beauty in Women's Book Review: "You find yourself rooting for Sofi and admiring her strength. The story keeps a reader wanting for more, and the author does an excellent job of reeling you in."

Now Debbie Campoli has some stories to tell - and we would like to read a book from her!

Photo courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland and Wikimedia Commons.

Analysis

What was most fun in writing Fear of Beauty? Switching back and forth in point of view between two diverse characters, an illiterate Afghan woman and an Army Ranger in charge of security of a nearby outpost. First-person point of view suits Sofi, and the more distant third-person suits Joey.

Kristen Elise of Murder Lab analyzes the back-and-forth point of view in Fear of Beauty. She explains that the book's "two subplots mesh at the beginning of Chapter 7" and describes the "approach of juxtaposing the first- and third-person perspectives as hallmarks of independent subplots" as "a fabulous way to include the intimacy of a first-person perspective while, in parallel, allowing the reader to observe scenes that the first-person protagonist would not have been privy to."

Her analysis is sharp, maybe because of her scientific background as a cancer drug discovery biologist within a major pharmaceutical company and as author of The Vesuvius Isotope and The Death Row Complex.

Those who write a book discover that reading other books is never the same. Writers are judges. Do check out Murder Lab.

Image courtesy of Murder Lab.

Lessons

Once again, life imitates art. Fear of Beauty describes an Afghan woman who is desperate to learn how to read after the death of her son - and she finds a teacher with an aid worker - a Bengali-American whose goal is to empower Afghan women though agriculture training.

Women understand that education ultimately improves communities - and Parth Shastri with The Times of India describes women of India heading to Afghanistan to teach. One source describes many similarities between Afghan and Indian ways of learning.

Shastri's article describes a group of 16 consultants and teachers attending a two-week workshop at the Centre for Environment Eucation in collaboration with the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan. Lessons were given, connections made, without complaints about language barriers or two weeks being too short of period. As Fear of Beauty suggests, much can be learned in two weeks, with motivation fired up. Determined students and  teachers overcome the language barriers - and never say can't.

"If Afghanistan has a fresh crop of woman scientists and linguists two decades from now, educationists in that country will have to thank their Indian counterparts," Shastri writes.

We can only hope that we are reading similar stories a year from now - and beyond.

Photo of Afghan teacher at the Nawabad School in the Deh Dadi district, courtesy of Sandra Arnold, US Armed Forces and Wikimedia Commons.

Divided partners

Fear of Beauty and this blog describe the role of the provincial reconstruction teams - groups of civilian and military specialists - in Afghanistan as they provide technical advice and support in agriculture, education, health care, construction and many other areas. Of course, some teams have produced great achievements and others have been less successful. Philosophies differ, as demonstrated by the quarrels between Cameron and Mita in Fear of Beauty. So much depends how the teams worked with local governments.

Alexandra Gheciu details and analyzes NGO concerns about the PRTs in an article "Divided Partners: The Challenges of NATO-NGO Cooperation in Peacebuilding Operations" for Global Governance:

"From NATO's point of view, the contemporary blurring of boundaries between civilian and military actions in peacebuilding operations can be seen as an opportunity to bring into the sphere of humanitarian activity some of the advantages of the military culture of efficiency. But from the perspective of many NGOs, the existing blurring of boundaries is a deeply problematic development that should be contained and, as much as possible, reversed. What is needed, according to this logic, is a clear separation between the military and humanitarian norms and activities, and an affirmation of the leading role of humanitarian organizations in the definition of the rules of the game in activities that involve assistance to civilians in war-torn countries."

Gheciu concludes that a lack of coordination will only lead to more disagreements, wasted resources and "growing disenchantment both in the territories undergoing postconflict reconstruction and in the international community - with international peacebuilding operations."

Strong opinions are the norm. People quarrel, institutions quarrel - and with luck, communities progress.

Saffron project

A pilot project for distributing saffron seeds has been successful throughout Helmand Province and agriculture officials expect cultivation to continue and the small flower to eventually become a common crop.

Agriculture Director Abdullah Ahmadzai also reported that the new program will train 40 farmers in growing techniques. The director explained the climate in Helmand  is favorable for the crop that needs less water, in a report for Pajhwok Afghan News by Shams Jalal.

One concern among farmers - as detailed in Fear of Beauty - is competition among farmers and villages and finding enough markets for the expensive golden spice.

And to read authentic news coming from Afghanistan, both good and bad, but refreshingly local, then head to Pajhwok Afghan News.

Photo courtesy of  Gut Gimritz (Germany) and Wikimedia Commons.  

Trade and peace

It's tough to kill the entrepreneurial spirit, though the Taliban in Afghanistan sure gave it a good try before 2001. Project Artemis, hosted by the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, hosts Afghan women for an intensive two-week business skills course.

Matthew Hilburn, reporting for Voice of America, describes a woman who ran a secret honey-making business during the Taliban era. Women entering the program run businesses for embroidery and saffron. Hilburn writes: "While Afghan businesswomen still have many hurdles to overcome - they still may need to rely on men for many external dealings such as negotiations and making deliveries - Artemis is making progress toward changing how women are viewed by society at large.

Artemis pairs the entrepreneurs with mentors. Check out the stories on their site - again, they are inspiring. The project operates in other countries, too, including Peru, Jordan and Pakistan.

Secrecy and saffron are part of the plot of Fear of Beauty. Trade, business, a sense of purpose provide security and stability for communities.

Photo of Afghan woman weaving carpet courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and US Marine Corps.