Thursday 30 th. June - 6.00pm
Taliban by James Fergusson
Following the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan the country was in chaos. In October 1994 a small group of religious students decided to take matters into their own hands. The Taliban, as they called themselves, fought with a religious zeal that the warring Mujaheddin could not match. By February 1995 they had become a national movement; 18 months later Kabul fell and the country was effectively theirs.
James Fergusson's fascinating account of this extraordinary story is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the current situation in Afghanistan. His foreign correspondent work has appeared in many publications, including the Independent, the European, the Daily Mail and Prospect magazine. A regular television and radio commentator, James is now an internationally acknowledged expert on Afghan affairs - a specialisation that began a decade and a half ago - and the author of three books on the subject.
His first, Kandahar Cockney: A Tale of Two Worlds (Harper Colins, 2004), was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and told the story of Mir, his Afghan fixer/interpreter whom he helped gain political asylum in London. His second, A Million Bullets: The Real Story of the British Army in Afghanistan, was published by Bantam Press in June 2008, and was the British Army's Military Book of the Year. His latest, Taliban, combining a reappraisal of that movement and a call for negotiations with them, appeared in 2010 and has been reprinted in several languages.
James will be speaking as part of the DLI Museum's 'Courageous Restraint: 3 RIFLES in Afghanistan' exhibition and project.
Please note there will be no additional admission cost for this talk.
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