How her family quickly packed up her grandfather’s handwritten Persian epic while the Taliban raided local villages for banned books. “It was important for me to record it, for people to understand, for the next generation and the history of Afghanistan,” Joya told Index. The day before the Taliban returned, she recounts in her book, she had the freedom to go the beauty salon. “The Vanishing Girl of Kabul. The Vanishing Girl of Kabul was published by Robinson on 23 July 2026