Kabul – Aboard The Democracy Train

September 2, 2026September 3, 2026

A Future Veiled in False Hopes

Published Date: November 10, 2001- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2001/11/11/a-future-veiled-in-false-hopes/a8f6d6a9-1c6f-4554-88a6-07497d96ff2e/

Twelve years ago, I was astonished by what I found on a trip from my native Pakistan to Afghanistan. I couldn’t have imagined a neighboring Muslim country with so many women in public places. Each morning, the Afghan capital was abuzz with young professionals on their way to work, most dressed in Western clothes and some even in miniskirts and high heels as they vied with their fashion-conscious counterparts in Paris.

August 19, 2026

Analysts: Battle for Kabul Has Begun

WASHINGTON — Taliban attacks on two consecutive weekends in Kabul, which have killed hundreds of people, including Americans, have occurred in the midst of stepped-up efforts by the Trump administration to find a way out of the 16-year-old Afghan imbroglio.

Cover Reviews

Shuja Nawaz
Author and Director South Asia Center

‘A powerful and courageous voice that represents the best of Pakistan’s emerging journalism…

Karen Frillmann
Managing Editor – Newsroom, New York Public Radio

‘Nafisa Hoodbhoy’s detailed reporting helped me look at the complex world of Pakistani politics differently. Hoodbhoy’s proximity to key players …

Hassan Abbas
Author and Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor

‘A story of a courageous journalist who defied conventional norms during times when very few other women were in this profession, and the country’s …

Frances Stead Sellers
Deputy National Editor, Health, Science and the Environment, The Washington Post

‘It was her fierce independence and commitment to her country that inspired [Hoodbhoy’s] decision to become a newspaper reporter the only female…

Reader Reviews

Karen McFly, 2013

‘Unputdownable! Required reading for anyone who is interested in how Pakistan came into being, developed into the country that it is today and what it was like in between being the only women journalist during dictator Zia ul Haq's military rule. Nafisa Hoodbhoy is a an extremely brave and defiant woman and a great writer whose storytelling qualities enable one to live through the different times as she has. Certainly worth reading a second time.‘

Vikas Datta, 2015

‘Another perceptive look into an embattled country and where Ms.Hoodbhoy scores is starting much earlier in a more dangerous decade which has however not got its adequate share of attention due to the lesser outward manifestations of violence, save in benighted Karachi and Sindh.‘

Kaustubh Kirti, 2018

‘A thrilling tale that follows the death of Zia on 1988 and folllows much of Pakistan's history till the shahadat of Benazir Bhutto. The book gives a close acccount of what goes behind the scene in the political landscape and how specific events change the functioning of democracy in Pakistan.‘