April 2013—A Cup of  Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez

We were given a living picture of the life of women within the Islamic city of Kabul.  Through the characters in this novel we gained perspective and some insights concerning life as a woman in a Muslim country.  The story takes place in and around a coffee shop in Kabul owned by an American adventurer, Sunny.  Naive and terribly ignorant of the customs and rituals of the people in her adopted city, she manages to form deep bonds with several women who connect in her coffee shop.  As a reader we are able to see how difficult and cruel life is for these women and we were able to draw lessons from their experiences.  We were truly drawn to the matriarch, Halajan, who had tasted a more free life when she was young but finds herself forced to live with the re-established Taliban rules for women as the story unfolds.  Even though she was much more "modern" in her actions and in her thinking she had in fact turned her back on her “soul mate” when she was young and agreed to an arranged marriage.  Her life was controlled by her religion and its customs and beliefs.  We also were drawn to the beautiful Yazmina who was sure she and her baby would be killed because she had no living husband.  It did not matter that her husband had been killed serving in the army; she was looked at as a whore and her child would not be allowed to live.   This too was a proscription of the Islam culture within she lived.  We were amazed by the courage of Candace and Isabel, two women who were outsiders and foreigners, and applauded their strength in the face of such overwhelming odds.  They fought for women in a place where women were deemed less than human.  They fought against the primitive customs that were controlling the women in Afghanistan.  This book was a great story of women and their strength in the face of hatred and abuse.  It is a great story of the redemption of love.  It is a great story of the power of friendship.  The quote from Eleanor Roosevelt best sums up our thoughts.  “Women are like tea bags; you never know how strong they are until they’re put in hot water.”