Beyond the Call

September 15, 2018
How the presence of Female Engagement Teams has affected the attempt to bring change to Afghanistan.USA Today editor Rivers, an Army veteran who served in Kuwait, follows three American women--Sgt. Sheena Adams, Maj. Maria Rodriguez, and Capt. Johanna Smoke--who worked to engage Afghan women in the effort to improve their lives and weaken the Taliban's hold on their country. The book begins with a brief history of women in the American military and then shifts to Afghanistan, where we meet Jamila Abbas, who watched her husband, a former officer in the Afghan army, beheaded by the mujahideen. Determined to help others escape oppression, she became an activist for women's rights, a choice that put her in great danger. But she was not without allies--specifically, American FETs. Ironically, the American women were themselves subject to rules limiting their roles. Adams fought hard to get assigned to Afghanistan. After being injured by an IED while on vehicle patrol and taking part in the subsequent firefight, she found her advancement blocked because the system gave her no credit for combat service. Rodriguez, working to give Afghan policewomen the tools and training to fulfill their mission, fought not only the provincial government, but her own chain of command, which prevented female service members from leaving base without male escorts. Smoke led an effort to register Afghan women to vote, effectively becoming Jamila's chief of staff in an effort to empower the downtrodden female population. Eventually, Adams became an advocate for FETs working in other countries, including some in Africa. Rivers gives detailed accounts of their time in Afghanistan. While the pace of the narrative occasionally lags and the prose is undistinguished, the overall story of the fight for women's rights in a country where the male power structure opposes them is compelling. The author's own military experience gives the book a perspective that is especially useful.A solid, fact-filled look at an underreported piece of the American military.

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November 15, 2018

Journalist and USA Today editor Rivers offers a view of the front lines in Afghanistan from the perspective of women who served there. Through the eyes of Maj. Maria Rodriguez, Sgt. Liz Carlin, and Capt. Johanna Smoke, the book's focus is on Female Engagement Teams (FET), which were deployed to work with and gather information from Afghani women who, owing to religious and cultural traditions, could not interact with male soldiers. In addition to FETs, the author includes the story of Jamila Abbas, an Afghan woman who campaigned for women's rights and worked with FETs to register women to vote. These untold stories detail accounts of the fight for gender equality within the American military and within Afghanistan, shedding light on the relationships and experiences that shaped the war effort. As a veteran herself, the author also weaves in her own experiences, which add useful insight to the narrative. VERDICT While the prose is perhaps not as tight as one might expect from a journalist, the stories here are well worth a read. Recommended to those with an interest in the war in Afghanistan, military history, women's history, gender studies, and biography.--Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2018
Rivers served in the U.S. Army in the Middle East after Desert Storm, and her coverage of the military's Female Engagement Teams (FET) is rooted in that experience. The FET were deployed in Afghanistan to interact with Afghani women, engagements that were impossible for male soldiers due to cultural traditions. The FET gathered an enormous amount of intelligence and were also able to build relationships with Afghani women, easing U.S. military operations. Rivers focuses primarily on two American FET members and an Afghani woman to show what the war was like on the ground starting in the late 1990s. She also covers the difficulties the American women had in earning respect from their male peers and commanding officers, even when they proved themselves again and again. The text relies heavily on precise descriptions and verbatim conversations dating back 20 years, which some may question, but as an intimate primer on the FET program, Rivers' account, which includes a historical overview of American women in combat, is of clear interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)