Forced into marriage as a child to a man 30 years her senior, Hawa fights for a measure of self-determination decades later. While her husband suffers from Alzheimer’s, she learns to read and write at the age of 52 in order to set up her own textile business in Kabul selling modern Hazara embroidery. She wants a free life for her daughter and a secure future for her granddaughter Zahra, whom she rescues from a violent father. But with the return of the Taliban, all hopes are dashed: Zahra must return to her family, her daughter flees into exile in France, and Hawa’s newly won freedom is once again threatened—as is that of all women in Afghanistan. A loving tribute from a daughter to her mother—and a haunting portrait of the disenfranchised women of Afghanistan.
