Children of Afghanistan

"This book is worth reading because it makes clear that childhood represents the future of societies and highlights the need to challenge the adultocentric view." * Allegra *

JENNIFER HEATH is an independent scholar, award-winning activist, cultural journalist, curator, and the author and/or editor of eleven books of fiction and non-fiction, including A House White With Sorrow: A Ballad for Afghanistan, The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam, and The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics. She came of age in Afghanistan and is the founder of Seeds for Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Relief Organization Midwife Training and Infant Care Program, now International Midwife Assistance. She lives in Boulder, Colorado. ASHRAF ZAHEDI, Ph.D., is a sociologist and has conducted research at the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the Beatrice Bain Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley; the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University; and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She has published many articles in academic journals and coedited Land of the Unconquerable: The Lives of Contemporary Afghan Women with Jennifer Heath.

Acknowledgments Introduction (Jennifer Heath) Part I. The Way We Were; The Way We're Seen Chapter 1. Before the Wars: Memories of Childhood in the Pre- Soviet Era (Amina Kator-Mubarez) Chapter 2. Narratives of Afghan Childhood: Risk, Resilience, and the Experiences that Shape the Development of Afghanistan as a People and a Nation (Anne E. Brodsky) Chapter 3. Jumping Rope in Prison: The Representation of Afghan Children in Film (Teresa Cutler-Broyles) Part II. Ties That Bind: The Family in Rebound Chapter 4. Love, Fear, and Discipline in Afghan Families (Deborah J. Smith) Chapter 5. Children Who Live with Their Mothers in Prison (Esther Hyneman) Chapter 6. Little Brides and Bridegrooms: Systemic Failure, Cultural Response (Sharifa Sharif) Part III. Survival by Any Means Possible Chapter 7. Confronting Child Labor (Amanda Sim) Chapter 8. The Parakeet Boys: Performing Education in the Streets of Kabul (Wahid Omar) Chapter 9. Child Soldiering in Afghanistan (Delphine Boutin) Chapter 10. Legal Protection: Offering Aid and Comfort (Hangama Anwari) Part IV. To Be Whole in Mind and Body Chapter 11. Children's Health: The Challenge of Survival (Steven Solter) Chapter 12. Food Security and Nutrition for Afghan Children (Fitsum Assefa, Annalies Borrel, and Charlotte Dufour) Chapter 13. Desperately Seeking Harun: Children with Disabilities (Lael Adams Mohib) Chapter 14. "Life Feeds on Hope": Family Mental Health, Culture, and Resilience (Mark Eggerman and Catherine Panter-Brick) Part V. Education: Nurturing the Future Chapter 15. Education in Transition: A Key Concern for Young Afghan Returnees (Mamiko Saito) Chapter 16. Primary and Secondary Education: Exponential Growth and Prospects for the Future (Omar Qargha) Chapter 17. Music and Literacy: A New Approach to Education (Louise M. Pascale) Part VI. Communicating Empowerment Chapter 18. "Thanks God for the Twitter and the Facebook! Thanks God for That!" (Lauryn Oates) Chapter 19. The New Storytellers of Afghanistan (Joanna Sherman) Chapter 20. Six Epiphanies: Testament to Change from Inside an Afghan Orphanage (Ian Pounds) Epilogue: Imagining the Future (Ashraf Zahedi) Selected Bibliography and Filmography About the Contributors Index