As the only woman, I was able to sit with the officers in front, with a glass of vodka in one hand and a cucumber in the other. That's how I went to my first war.

There is nothing I would change - to change it I would have had to write a totally different book.

The book came after the fall of the Taliban, it says something about Afghan family life. Those kind of stories - what happens behind the scenes on a TV screen - are important.

If I leave, reality will devour me. Then they will all really be dead.

When I decided to stay in Iraq, I decided to take the fear out of my body and put it into a freezer.

The family is the single most important institution in Afghan culture. It is described in the country's constitution as the 'fundamental pillar of society'.