People often ask my recommendation about Afghanistan related books and movies. This list is inspired by years of reading and writing about Afghanistan and the Islamic world. I also crowd sourced some of the recommendations from my friends and contacts on social media

I have not read all of these books and nor do I promote or endorse any specific writer, film maker or type of message. If you would like to make suggestions of books, films or documentaries to be included in this list, please drop me a note in the comment section of my blog.

Afghanistan Non-Fiction:

  • A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Nelofer Pazira

  • Afghanistan by Thomas J. Barfield

  • Afghanistan by Louis Dupree

  • Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics) by Thomas Barfield

  • Afghanistan: A Memoir from Brooklyn to Kabul by Cat Parenti

  • Afghanistan: A Modern History by Angelo Rasanayagam

  • Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present Day by Jonathan Lee

  • Afghantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-1989 by Sir Rodric Braithwaite

  • Another Afghanistan: A Photographic Journey Through The Afghan Spring by Ginna Fleming

  • An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot

  • A Woman Among Warlords by Malalai Joya

  • Bleeding Afghanistan by Sonali Kolhatkar

  • Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile III

  • Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary

  • Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll

  • Education in Afghanistan: Developments, Influences and Legacies since 1901 by Yahia Baiza

  • Forbidden Lessons from a Kabul Guesthouse by Suraya Sadeed

  • Games Without Rules by Tamim Ansary

  • Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll

  • Government and Society in Afghanistan by Hasan Kakar

  • I am a Bacha Posh: My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan by Ukmina Manoori

  • I am The Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan by Eliza Griswold

  • In the Graveyard of Empires by Seth Jones

  • Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez

  • Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones

  • Mataluna : 151 Afghan Pashto Proverbs by Edward Zellem

  • Modern Afghanistan by Amin Saikal

  • No Good Men Among the Living: America, The Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes by Anand Gopal

  • Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Female Pilot by Niloofar Rahmani

  • Opium Nation by Fariba Nawa

  • Raising My Voice by Malalai Joya

  • Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple

  • Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

  • The Afghanistan File by Prince Turki Al-Faisal Saud

  • The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock

  • The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

  • The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World by Zalmay Khalilzad

  • The Favored Daughter by Fawzia Koofi

  • The Long War: The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan since 9/11 by David Loyn

  • The Lovers: Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet, the True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped an Honor Killing by Rod Nordland

  • The Places In Between by Rory Stewart

  • The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes

  • The Silk Roads: A New History of the New World by Peter Frankopan

  • The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

  • The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban by Rosemarie Skaine

  • The World is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village by Anna Badkhen

  • The Wrong Enemy by Carlotta Gall

  • The Wars of Afghanistan by Peter Tomsen

  • The Will to Resist by Dahr Jamail

  • To the Mountains: My Life in Jihad, from Algeria to Afghanistan by Abdullah Anas

  • We March at Midnight: A War Memoir by Ray McPadden

  • West of Kabul, East of New York by Tamim Ansary

  • Zoya’s Story by John Follain, Rita Cristofari, and Zoya

  • Zarbul Masalha : 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs by Edward Zellem

Afghanistan - Fiction

  • A Curse on Dostoevsky by Atiq Rahimi

  • A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi

  • And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

  • A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

  • Earth & Ashes by Atiq Rahimi

  • One Half From East by Nadia Hashimi

  • Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi

  • Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

  • Silent Trees by Nasir Shansab

  • Sparks like Stars by Nadia Hashimi

  • The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

  • The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

  • The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

  • The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

  • The Secret Sky by Atia Nawabi

  • The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

  • The Widow’s Husband by Tamim Ansary

  • This Shall Be a House of Peace by Phil Halton

  • When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi

Children’s Books

  • The Lion Who Saw Himself in The Water by Idries Shah (available in English, Dari and Pashto)

  • The Silly Chicken by Idries Shah (available in English, Dari and Pashto)

  • The Sky at Our Feet by Nadia Hashimi

  • The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal by Idries Shah (available in English, Dari and Pashto)

  • The Old Woman and The Eagle by Idries Shah (available in English, Dari and Pashto)

  • The Man and the Fox by Idries Shah (available in English, Dari and Pashto)

Short Stories:

  • Kabuliwala by Rabindranath Tagore

  • Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

Non-Fiction Books on Islam and Muslim Countries

  • And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East by Richard Engel

  • America's Great Game: The CIA'S Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East by Hugh Wilford

  • A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to Isis by Robert F. Worth

  • Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey Inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East by Joel C. Rosenberg

  • Generation M by Shelina Janmohamed

  • Home Fire by Kamilla Samshi

  • In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland

  • Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

  • Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

  • Muhammad by Karen Armstrong

  • No God But God by Reza Aslan

  • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

  • Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi

  • The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam

  • The Golden Legend by Aslam Nadeen

  • The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists by Khaled Abou El Fadl

  • The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World by Mohammed Ayoob

  • The Secret Lives of Young Women who are Transforming the Arab World by Katherine Zoepf

  • The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr

  • The Story of the Quran by Ingrid Mattson

  • The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist

  • The Vanished Imam by Fouad Ajami

  • The Wishmaker by Ali Sethi

Fiction Books on Islam and Muslim Countries

  • Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

  • Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane

  • A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar

  • Equal of The Sun by Anita Amirrezvani

  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

  • Habibi by Craig Thompson

  • How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

  • Minaret by Leila Aboulela

  • Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid

  • My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

  • Secret Son by Laila Lalami

  • The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

  • The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahn

  • The Last Days of Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan

  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

  • The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight

  • When the Apricots Bloom: A Novel of Riveting and Evocative Fiction by Gina Wilkinson

  • White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Afghanistan Films:

  • Charlie Wilson’s War

  • Kandahar

  • Osama

  • The Patience Stone

  • The Orphanage

  • A Letter to the President

  • Hava, Maryam, Ayesha

  • Wolf and Sheep

  • Three Songs for Benazir

  • The Red Bicycle

  • Kabul Girls

  • Buzkashi Boys

  • The Dogs Didn’t Sleep Last Night

Muslim Country Films

  • Capharnaum - Lebanon

  • The Color of Paradise - Iran

A podcast about how one woman worked for over eleven years to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites.

Documentaries About Afghanistan:

  • Afghanistan By Choice

  • Afghan Cycles

  • Afghan Star

  • Ascending Afghanistan: Women Rising

  • Behind the Taliban Lines

  • Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

  • Frame by Frame

  • Hindu Kush to Thames

  • Love Crimes of Kabul

  • Mission Afghanistan

  • My Kabul, BBC Documentary Series

  • Restrepo

  • The Beauty Academy of Kabul

  • The Last Images of War

  • To Kill a Sparrow

  • What Tomorrow Brings

  • With This Breath I Fly

  • In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland

  • I Do My Work

Photographer's works in Afghanistan:

Gabriela Maj

Joe Hoyt

Zalmai Ahad

Steve McCurry

Paula Bronstein

Lynzy Billing

Matthew Karsten

Pete Souza


THE AFGHANISTAN BOOKS AND MOVIES

Go To Books and Documentaries on Afghanistan and the Islamic World