"Imagine living in a country in which women and girls are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go out. This is life in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, members of an extreme religious group, run most of the country."

That's the publisher's blurb on an extraordinary novel for young adults by Canadian author and activist Deborah Ellis. The book is The Breadwinner and was first published in fall, 2000. It now is available in paperback.

Dedicated "To the children of war," the book has been rendered more painfully relevant by the terrorist attacks of September and the subsequent US bombing in Afghanistan.

The novel unfolds quickly, avoiding the potholes of propaganda and polemics. I can imagine many families reading this passionate book out loud together, stopping every so often to talk about the choices faced by the family in this story.

Parvana "wasn't really supposed to be outside at all," Ellis writes on the first page. "The Taliban had ordered all the girls and women in Afghanistan to stay inside their homes. They even forbade girls to go to school. Parvana had had to leave her sixth grade class, and her sister Nooria was not allowed to go to her high school. Their mother had been kicked out of her job as a writer for a Kabul radio station. For more than a year now, they had all been stuck inside one room, along with five year-old Maryam and two year old Ali."

A long-time worker for peace and women's issues, Ellis wrote her book after trips to Afghan refugee camps in Russia and Pakistan. She does not use last names in her novel for fear that any name, even a fictional one, might get someone in trouble with Taliban sympathizers.

During one of her visits she met the mother and sister of a girl who had survived in Kabul much as Parvana. The girl was one of many who cut her hair and dressed as a boy in order to move freely in the Kabul marketplace.

In a recent interview Ellis said, "I learned through my political work to see the human being in the enemy. It comes from working for years for a non-violent society. That's how I was able to write this book. You have to understand the enemy is human too." Ellis was the subject of death threats during her most recent visit to Peshawar in Pakistan.

Ellis writes, "For most of Parvana's life, the city had been in ruins, and it was hard for her to imagine it another way. It hurt her to hear stories of old Kabul before the bombing. She didn't want to think about everything the bombs had taken away, including her father's health and their beautiful home. It made her angry, and since she could do nothing with her anger, it made her sad."

Afghani females in their enforced isolation behind black-painted windows lose the ability to climb stairs; dressed in full-length burquas they stumble over craters and potholes, venturing outside only when accompanied by a male.

Still, the women in this novel manage strategies for survival. They take care of each other; hold clandestine classes; even publish a magazine.

At one particularly despondent moment Parvana's best friend says, "We still go hungry. My family still argues all the time. Nothing is better."

"What's the answer?" Parvana asked.

"Maybe somebody should drop a big bomb on the country and start again."

"They've tried that," Parvana said. "It only makes things worse."

Royalties from sales of The Breadwinner will be donated to Women for Women in Afghanistan, a grass-roots organization founded by the author, that works toward the education of Afghan girls in refugee camps in Pakistan.

Aired Friday November 9, 2001 at 8:35 am and Sunday November 11, 2001 at 6:55 pm

Resources:

The full interview with author Deborah Ellis can be found at ACHUKA, "the chock-full, eyes peeled, independent children's book site" by clicking on http://achuka.com/can/canadaellis.htm.