Samira and Samir: The Heart Rendering Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan

Product Details

Author : Siba Shakib
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780099466444
Edition : New Ed
Number of Pages : 352
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2005-05-05
Publisher : Arrow Books Ltd

ASIN : 0099466449

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Editorial Reviews

Synopsis

When the young Afghanistanian girl Samira is born, her father, a commander fighting in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, decides to raise her as a boy called Samir. The fact that Samir is really a girl is soon forgotton as Samir learns to fight, ride and shoot as well as any boy and when her father is killed she becomes the head of the family. As an adult, she falls in love with the male friend of her youth and is forced to reveal her true identity. In order to marry Bashir, she must relinquish the freedom she is afforded as a man. Samira follows her heart but hates wearing the veil. Eventually, the torment becomes too great and she decides that there must be a third way to live, as a confident woman not confined by the rules of her culture. This is her story.

About the Author

Siba Shakib:
Born in Iran, Siba Shakib grew up in Tehran and attended a German school there. A writer and maker of documentaries and films, she has travelled to Afghanistan many times over the last five years, visiting the north as well as the territory that was commanded by the Taliban. Several of her documentaries have won awards, including the moving testimonials she has made of the horrors of life in Afghanistan and the plight of the Afghan women. She lives in New York and Germany.

Customer Reviews

Samir and Samira (2008-05-01)

This is a badly written book which is so blunt and very hard to get into. The author does not have style which entices readers in. It was so boring that I skipped chapters just to find the only part which I thought may be interesting where Bashir discovers Samir is a female. I would never recommend this book to anyone and found it a waste of my money!

I loved it, worth the time and money spended (2008-04-24)

While reading this book,i enjoyed every second of it. The writer style is amazing. I was occupied with this story till I finished it. The writer touched a very sensetive issues in the comunity that has never been touched and dealt with in the way she did. From today I will look for the writer name when i want to choose a book. You must read.

Badly Written - A Dissapointment (2007-10-23)

After reading the bookseller of Kabul I wanted to read more about Afghanistan. The premise sounded really intriguing but was poorly executed. It is supposedly based on a true story of the daughter of an Afghan tribal leader who is raised as a boy. However unlike The Bookseller of Kabul which was a true story which reads like fiction it comes across as completely made up and unreadable. The style was extremely difficult to read and lack of speech marks made it hard to tell whether something was being said or just thought. Also the repetition of certain phrases and images became more and more irritating as the book went on. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was when she met her Grandfather as I felt I could really visualize him and he was an interesting character. However that is just a small section of the book. I was really dissapointed that such an interesting story was told it such an unenjoyable way. When I finished it, which was an achievement in itself, I sold it which is something I never do. I got less than I paid for it but I was happy to get at least some of my money back. I would advise loaning this book from a library before you think of buying it to see if you enjoy the unusual style and aren't bothered by the things that spoiled the story for me.

better off choosing A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007-10-20)

I really did not like reading this book. I wanted to read more about women in Afghanistan after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns (which was probably the best book I have ever read). However this book I found tedious to read. The writing style is awful and why are there no speech marks? There are so many irritating repeated phrases throughout the book I felt as if I would scream if I read one more time. I have given it 2* as the story is OK, but the writing style ruins it.

Worth Reading-Excellent (2006-10-02)

This book was a very good read. I was enticed in the book from the moment i started it to the moment i put it down. It is a story about a father who wants a boy so desperately that he bring up his first child a girl' as a boy. Her parents didn't have anymore children, so her father continue to treat Samira as a boy and taught her to fight, ride horses, shoot and many more men tasks. This is a very difficult senario to be in for Samira/Samir and the older she got the more difficult it became for her. Her father didn't have to bear the affects of this, as he died when Samira was still a child. It only became difficult when she fell in love with a friend that she realised that the effects of being a girl will change her future. The problems arised when the girl started developing into a female that her destinity had to be changed and only Samira on her own had to decide what she wanted to be at the time and what she wanted to become in the future. Samira showed courage, strength and showed those people that identify women as weak that they can be as strong as men are. Samira became her mother's strength and she became her grandfathers missing arm. She wasn't scared and dealt and acted as men did naturally and found it difficult to behave as a real women when she really had to try too for her love of her friend who became her husband. It is one of the best books i have read and the style of writing is very diffent, but good.

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