Walking the Precipice: Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan »

Barbara Bick was born in Washington D.C. in 1925 and graduated from Antioch Collage. A longtime peace and human rights activist, Bick has worked for Women Strike for Peace, NEGAR (an Afghan women's organization), the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute for Women's Policy Research, and the National Conference of State and Local Public Policies.

A human rights activist in Afghanistan witnesses the start of the "War on Terror."

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

Bick's enthralling memoirs of her time in Afghanistan begin with her first travels in 1990, at the age of 65, and continue through two more visits, which gave the American activist and author (Culture and Politics) the rare opportunity to experience Afghanistan under the Communist, Taliban and Karzai regimes. While there, Bick traveled with a number of Afghan women, learning about their complex role in society, and developing a keen grasp of the fluid political rivalries. Bick's final trip was to attend a conference affirming the Constitutional rights of Afghan women, a first, ceremonial step toward instigating positive change for women throughout the war-torn country. In her tale, Bick produces a comprehensive political history of modern Afghanistan that distills deeply rooted tribal conflicts into terms Americans can easily grasp. While tracing her journey from the outside in, she makes her readers insiders too-without shying away from the drastic changes in perspective she gained on the way; in one of her most compelling and emotional episodes, Bick is witness to the assassination of moderate mujahadeen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, a regional hero for many. By the end of the short but dense narrative, readers will have a far greater understanding of the region and the stakes under which its people labor.
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Preface 1

1 Kabul, 1990 3

2 Against the Taliban, 1992-2000 29

3 Journey to the Land of the Mujahidin, 2001 49

4 Khoja Bahauddin 63

5 Faizabad 83

6 The Assassins 101

7 Kabul Redux, 2003 125

Chronology Timeline 160

Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women 163

NEGAR Petition: Statement of Support for the Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women 166

Acknowledgments 168