An Afghan Woman's Odyssey is a first-person account of the tragedy that disrupted daily life in Afghanistan after the Communist coup of April 1978, events that eventually contributed to the volatile Taliban rule. This is the tale of a woman desperate to find her missing husband and her painful decision finally to abandon the search and to leave the country with her three children. Her story typifies the kinds of human-rights violations that became common practice after the Soviet invasion and made way for the later abuses of the Taliban.

Farooka Gauhari, formerly an associate professor at Kabul University in Afghanistan, works in the department of biology at the University of Nebraska–Omaha. Nancy Dupree is the author of The Cultural Basis of Afghan Nationalism.

"Provides rare insight into the life of women in Kabul. . . . A timely reminder of the many dimensions of women's existence in Afghanistan.”—Journal of Refugee Studies

"This often harrowing account of the disappearance of Saleem Gauhari, and his wife's subsequent search for him, presents the confusion, fear, absurdity, and paranoia of war and revolution in a readable and. . . . Engaging style."—Multicultural Review

"An engrossing personal account. . . . Should be read by those with an interest in Afghanistan and the events of the past twenty years."—International Journal of Middle East Studies

"Effective in conveying the immediate effects of Communist rule on everyday life. . . . Up to now the war and its effects on the Afghan population have been filtered almost exclusively through the lens of Western writers."—Women's Review of Books