original

Having read about halfway into the book, I find it refreshing how Seierstad seems to have successfully removed any traces of her own personal voice or tone from the story and instead focuses on delineating the story of the Khan family. Even when describing events universally deemed appalling by the Western world, such as Saliqa's punishment for falling in love with an unsuitable man, Seierstad simply recounts the events as they transpired, free of the slightest hints at judgement or disdain for the atrocities she is retelling. When faced with something as cruel as the treatment of women in the Muslim world, I feel like it would be a lot easier to lash out passionately against their mistreatment than it would be to depict a tale brimming with these cruelties with the utmost neutrality, and thus I'm impressed by how Seierstad keeps her personal opinions out of her story [although writing & publishing a story like this in the first place could be said to be speaking out against the mistreatment of Muslim women].