I read the below from here. https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/poetry-of-the-taliban/
Description
Overlooked by many as mere propaganda, poetry offers an unfettered insight into the wider worldview of the Afghan Taliban. This collection of over two hundred poems draws upon Afghan tradition and the recent past as much as upon a long history of Persian, Urdu and Pashto verse. The contrast between the severity of their ideology and the Taliban’s long-standing poetic tradition is nothing short of remarkable. Unrequited love, vengeance, the thrill of battle, religion and nationalism — even a yearning for non-violence — are expressed through images of wine, powerful women and pastoral beauty, providing a fascinating insight into the hearts and minds of these redoubtable adversaries.
Taliban verse is fervent, and very modern in its criticism of human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict. Whether describing an air strike on a wedding party or lamenting, ‘We did all of this to ourselves’, it is concerned not with politics, but with identity, and a full, textured, deeply conflicted humanity.
It is such impassioned descriptions – sorrowfully defeated and enraged, triumphant, bitterly powerless or bitingly satirical – and not the austere arguments of myriad analysts that will ultimately define and endure as a record of the war in Afghanistan.
Reviews
‘Afghanistan has a rich and ancient tradition of epic poetry celebrating resistance to foreign invasion and occupation. This extraordinary collection is remarkable as a literary project – uncovering a seam of war poetry few will know ever existed, and presenting to us for the first time the black turbaned Wilfred Owens of Wardak. But it is also an important political project: humanising and giving voice to the aspirations, aesthetics, emotions and dreams of the fighters of a much-caricatured and still little-understood resistance movement that is about to defeat yet another foreign occupation. — William Dalrymple, author of The Last Mughal and the forthcoming The Return of a King: Shah Shuja and the First Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42
‘These are poems of love and war and friendship and tell us more about Afghanistan than a million news reports. Anybody claiming to be an Afghan expert should read this book before giving their next opinion.’ –– Mohammed Hanif, author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes and Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
‘Much of the poetry here appeals to the heart rather than the head, engendering sympathy for the speakers’ plight. That these poems put us in this uncomfortable place is the most impressive achievement of the anthology.’ — Daljit Nagra, The Guardian
‘There is much shock and some awe in this mixed collection, and the editors are to be applauded for beginning “our” education in this troubled and troubling literature.’ — Times Higher Education
‘A book that shouldn’t be missed.’ – The Washington Post
‘The verse assembled in Poetry of the Taliban is by turns bombastic and introspective, dark and mirthful, ugly and lyrical — and perhaps above all, surprising in its unabashedly emotional tone.’ — Los Angeles Times
‘[Poetry of the Taliban] allows us first-hand access to the sentiments of a people the West still knows too little about, even after more than eleven years of occupation. With the NATO troop pullout less than two years away this candid look in the hearts of Afghans may be overdue. But it’s not too late.’ — Anna Badkhen, New Republic
‘A highly original and extremely important book which by making the Taliban’s poems available in English arguably sheds more light on the Taliban and its resilience than could any organisational chart or force assessment. More significantly, it draws attention to the crucial role that aesthetics and emotions – as opposed to resources and doctrines – play in military organizations. As such, this may be the first poetry book of strategic significance.’ — Thomas Hegghammer, author of Jihad In Saudi Arabia and co-author of Al-Qaida in its Own Words
‘This is an essential work. … In compiling The Poetry of the Taliban, these young scholars have preserved the intimate and the expansive, ranging from pastoral imagery of the Afghan countryside, to satire on global politics and rich references to Afghan, Muslim and biblical history. In the process they go beyond humanising the Taliban towards understanding them. The same Taliban, known to the world as cultural morons, turn out to have inspired a corpus of poetry which links to the finest civilisational accomplishments of Pashto, Farsi, Urdu and Arabic. … If anyone still wonders on which cultural resources the Taliban drew to inspire a people to resist a dull global plan to modernise them, read on.’ — Michael Semple, Harvard University and former EU representative in Afghanistan.
YEARS AGO, my son Dan had a friend named A.J. from Afghanistan. He later came to one of our parties with his American wife from Bryn Athyn I believe and their myriad of children. He is now an attorney.
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