Twenty years old and in love, Phyllis Chesler embarked on an adventure that lasted more than a half-century. Shortly after arriving in Afghanistan with her Afghan bridegroom, the authorities took away her American passport, and she became the property of her husband’s family.
Drawing upon personal diaries, Chesler recounts her ordeal, the nature of gender apartheid, and her new family’s attempts to convert her from Judaism to Islam. Chesler nearly died, but managed to escape and return to America. Her memoir is An American Bride in Kabul.
Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at City University of New York, a Fellow at Middle East Forum and at the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy. An American Bride in Kabul won a 2013 National Jewish Book Award and she will be speaking at a Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York event on Wednesday May 6th in Schenectady.
