Love and War in Afghanistan presents true stories of 15 ordinary men and women living in northern Afghanistan. In a quarter-century of uninterrupted war, the people of Afghanistan have endured foreign invasions, ethnic strife, a fundamentalist Islamic totalitarian regime and the unending crossfire of rival warlord factions. The country remains an object of fascination for journalists, academics and film-makers from around the world. In the midst of it all, it is a startlingly powerful experience to discover, here, the voices of the Afghan people themselves.

Young lovers who elope against the wishes of their kin, a mullah whose wit is his only defense against his armed captors, a defector from the Soviet army, a woman who is forced to stand up to gangsters in Tajikistan–their dramatic stories emerge in their own unforgettable words. Whether in the sudden awakening of mercy in a Taliban militiaman, the lingering contempt of a woman for her husband’s first wife, the pain and confusion of flight into exile or the resourcefulness of a child who must provide for an entire family, the real focus of these narratives is the strength of solitary individuals faced daily with their own vulnerability.

Men, women, orphans, widows, widowers, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Turkmens, schoolteachers, mullahs, former Taliban, mujahedin, big brothers, little sisters, captive wives, lovers in flight: Love and War in Afghanistan tells their stories.

Alex Klaits worked in northeastern Afghanistan from December 2001 to September 2003, undertaking humanitarian and reconstruction programs with Child Fund Afghanistan and the Christian Children’s Fund.

Gulchin Gulmamadova-Klaits has worked for a variety of international aid organizations in her native Tajikistan, including CARE International, the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund and the Asian Development Bank. She holds a BA in economics from a university in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, although her studies were interrupted when she fled her hometown to escape the country’s civil war. In addition to her native Pamiri, Gulmamadova-Klaits speaks Russian, English, Tajik and Dari.