Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey
Harriet’s parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and doing ‘the Season’, she would meet and marry a suitable young man. But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan’s last remaining silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the K H A D, narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who became her devoted companion.

At the end of the first Gulf War she travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly liberated Iraqi Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic fundamentalism.
"1129473566"
Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey
Harriet’s parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and doing ‘the Season’, she would meet and marry a suitable young man. But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan’s last remaining silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the K H A D, narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who became her devoted companion.

At the end of the first Gulf War she travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly liberated Iraqi Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic fundamentalism.
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Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey

Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey

by Harriet Sandys
Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey

Beyond that Last Blue Mountain: My Silk Road Journey

by Harriet Sandys

Paperback(Mass Market Paperback)

$14.95 
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Overview

Harriet’s parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and doing ‘the Season’, she would meet and marry a suitable young man. But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan’s last remaining silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the K H A D, narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who became her devoted companion.

At the end of the first Gulf War she travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly liberated Iraqi Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic fundamentalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781911487166
Publisher: Medina Publishing
Publication date: 02/20/2020
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Harriet Sandys was born in Cumbria and lived a sheltered and rural life near Lake Windermere until the age of 18. In her 20s Harriet travelled alone to Afghanistan to see for herself the plight of the refugees.

Having trained as an oriental carpet restorer in London, she spent her time in the bazaars and learnt to speak Dari. Over the next 15 years she would travel alone across the Middle and Near East, sourcing textiles for her business and starting the silk weaving project for refugees in Afghanistan.

She now runs her own business selling oriental textiles and decorative items in Somerset, where she lives with her husband. She is a world-renowned authority on silk ikat and oriental carpets and has spoken at the Society for Oriental and African Studies and the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

Table of Contents

Foreword 11

Part I Early Days 17

Chapter 1 A Cumbrian childhood 19

Chapter 2 London life 39

Part II Pakistan 45

Chapter 3 Crossing the border 47

Chapter 4 Out of the Nomad's Nent and The Living Daylights 55

Chapter 5 Garam Chashma, Chitral 71

Chapter 6 Jalalabad, and Death in the Swat Valley 77

Chapter 7 Jamhuriat Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan 95

Chapter 8 Number 10 Canal Bank Road, Peshawar 111

Chapter 9 Women must not swing their hips! 145

Chapter 10 Under attack 163

Part III Afghanistan 171

Chapter 11 Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif - a reconnaissance 173

Chapter 12 The ikat silk-weavers of Jowzjan 187

Chapter 13 Folly on the Andarab River, a concert and a wedding 199

Part IV Iraqi Kurdistan 207

Chapter 14 A Land of Widows 209

Chapter 15 The Evil Eye 221

Part V Former Yugoslavia 231

Chapter 16 Bosnia-Herzegovina 233

Part VI Syria 257

Chapter 17 Syria - the calm before the storm 259

Epilogue: Tying up loose threads 263

Endnotes 270

Glossary 272

Bibliography 276

Index 278

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