Zarifa Ghafari was mayor of Maidan Wardak, a province of Kabul, Afghanistan and escaped from the Taliban in August 2021 to seek refuge in Germany. Ghafari was included by the BBC as one of the '100 most inspiring and influential women in the world' in 2019, received the International Woman of Courage Award from the US State Department in 2020 and the Oxi Day Foundation Award for Courage in 2021. She runs a foundation for women in Afghanistan.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is the author of Erdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey and The Times correspondent in Turkey, where she has covered conflicts, a coup attempt and the rise of controversial president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She has reported from inside rebel-held Syria, on the front lines of the battle against Isis in Iraq, and joined migrants on their journey to Europe in 2015. She has also worked also for the BBC, the Atlantic and the Spectator, and was awarded a Pulitzer grant to write for Wired magazine.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Anyone wanting to know the grim reality of being a woman in Afghanistan and trying to make a difference, could not find a more illuminating book. Zarifa will break your heart. - Christina Lamb, author of Our Bodies, Their Battlefields

Zarifa's words, like her life, are an act of courage, weaving heartache with hope. They illuminate all the things we take for granted, especially the ordinary moments, the daily freedoms and most intimate of relationships. They illuminate the threads that connect our rights, freedoms, and happiness into an interconnected whole. - Shubhangi Swarup, Tata Prize winning author of Latitudes of Longing --This text refers to the paperback edition.