Beyond the Call: Three Women on the Front Lines in Afghanistan
By: Eileen Rivers / Narrated By: Elisabeth Rodgers
Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
A mighty Huzzah! for women!
I gotta tell ya: When I started Beyond the Call, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. Much like my Big Sis who got bogged down with all the names, places, actions that are part and parcel of a well-researched history (Giles Milton!), I began with the same sorta sense of discombobulation. Our story here opens with a fairly meticulous list of American women’s actions during our nation’s history of war(s).
Ho-hum…
But then author Eileen Rivers dives into the state of affairs for Military Women in the recent past, their struggles in the very present Now. So there’s that, and it’s so galling as to make dozing off danged near impossible (Tho’ a heavy dose of carbs had me sleepy at one point—Boooo! meeee!). Plus, it helps that Rivers worked for the Military forces herself, giving her a most personal experience of how women are treated, viewed, the limitations that are thrust upon them, and it gives her a most empathetic attitude as she begins the journey to chronicle how various women shaped and were shaped by joining the FETs (Female Engagement Teams). Add one woman from Afghanistan who starts as a victim, but goes on to be a pure powerhouse for Afghani women, and you’ve the makings of some pretty riveting Listening.
The American women? Major Maria Rodriguez, Captain Johanna Smoke, and Sergeant Sheena Adams. The Afghani powerhouse? Jamila (And what? Are you expecting me to be able to spell her last name? Who, me?!). Jamila has the traumatic experience of seeing her husband beheaded and then having to flee, by herself, her young children in tow.
Every single woman mentioned began projects, continued projects, brought projects to successful fruition. And each struggled against the powers that be, from the White House all the way down to fellow service members. New routes were taken during simple marches (Say a 20-minute hike) that turned into grueling 2-hour hikes over rough terrain, all carrying their super-weighted packs. All this, to put women in their place, to make them suffer and drop out.
But the women kept going and bucked each other up, no complaining. And proved their worth as soldiers, proved their strength, proved their fortitude. The extraordinarily correct attitude.
What I truly liked the most was that the women made an effort to understand the women they’d be working with, the culture that could accept or reject, depending on how the Americans comported themselves. While some of the things that Afghani women suffered were jarring, at no point did the FETs view them as victims incapable of change, or as victims unwilling to speak out, to act. All these positive attitudes despite the danger these Afghani women faced from their society, their culture, the men in their families who can kill them at the slightest provocation. Employed women? Provocation. Working closely with Americans? DEFinite provocation. Earning more money? Wellll, the husbands could take the money and still kill. With aaaalll that in mind, I didn’t get the sense that author Rivers was setting them up as helpless victims; rather, especially with Jamila and her efforts, I think she showcased just how brave, how very determined the Afghani women were, especially when it came to defying their husbands, the very Taliban, to register to vote.
Suffragists, first class!
Okay, another miiiiinor peeve I had at the beginning was narrator Elisabeth Rodgers’s voice. She has very imperious tones that aaaalmost make Rivers seem smug and self-satisfied when, through attention to the text, that is NOT the case at all. But Rodgers proved herself, with the time flying by, of being All-In. If the women were hollered at, Rodgers didn’t hesitate to bellow, not so loud as to shatter eardrums but certainly enough to kinda lower the volume for just a wee bit. Further, the women were working with some tough men, and she does male voices extremely well. Brava, Rodgers, and well done!
All in all an engaging Listen and edifying as well. Not to mention aggravating that the country they came back to still wouldn’t allow them the rights and opportunities that the men get, not even acknowledging (For yeeears!) that the women had been doing the exact same jobs, had run the exact same risks, had experienced the exact same IED blasts, had been maimed, wounded, killed in the exact same manner as men. Galling, but as Rivers writes, the women continue to Not Back Down but to fight for their rights, which is pretty inspirational, purely, simply.
Beyond the Call is an excellent Listen, and Man! am I so happy, so proud, to be able to say: Yesssss! this year we have yet another audiobook to celebrate Women’s History Month, yet another audiobook to celebrate Women Warriors.
I know I know I know: I say it a lot, but?
HUZZAH!!!
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