This is an insider's view of the Afghanistan and Pakistan border, by a third generation refugee girl, who found Pakistanis called her an Afghani and Afghan people called her Pakistani. Also because she was from a tribal family, city people looked down on her anyway. The real hero comes across as being her father, a big-hearted man of means who happened to have girl children before a boy, and so gave his time and resources to the growing girls. He showed the author how to meet the people in his tribe and care about their problems, speak up for them and help them.

Having been educated at home and schools, the author found it hard to explain to patriarchs why they would be interested in educating girls and women. The obvious answers to give - that women run the home and it's safer if they can read, plus they will educate both boys and girls at home - took her three months to find.

With some unusual choices, and heart-stopping moments - a bomb, deaths, the regular sound of gunfire in Kabul, sitting on a still plane for six hours waiting to get out of the country - the author fought bureaucracy and endemic corruption to bring education to girls in their homes. She's brave and determined, and while I hadn't heard of her, I don't use facebook or twitter so others probably have. The story is well written and highly readable. NGOs should read this book and learn the lessons exposed. For instance, stop funding school building when the locals blow up the buildings and girls are not allowed to go outdoors anyway. Distribute pre-loaded solar powered tablets. Great solution.

I read this e-ARC book from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

I read this book for free thanks to NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback.

As a teacher and mother, I am passionate about children's access to a fair and equitable education. However, the children in my life have never suffered from lack of education support as detailed in this beautifully written memoir.

I pray that someday, all children regardless of gender, race, faith or country have access to an excellent and free education.

Thank you for your memories. I hope you may return home someday.

I was immediately impressed by Pashtuna Durrani’s motivation and drive. She saw cracks in her environment and she made it her mission to fill them bit by bit. She sacrificed her own future and life to help others.

This book really helps you realize how fortunate you are as an American citizen. We can bash the government publicly as much as we want with no punishment. As a girl and woman, I had almost everything at my fingertips.

I love that she had parents who supported her and made her who she is, even if they regretted how bold she became at times.

Obviously check out Malala’s book if you are interesting in reading something similar to this. I think this would be a great book for young girls to read and see they can go against the standards the world sets for us. Thank you to NetGalley, Pashtana Durani, Tamara Bralo, and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read Last to Eat, Last to Learn. I have written this review voluntarily.

Durrani and Bralo offer another insight into the horrors of life as a woman in Afghanistan and bring to light the importance of education and striving to create change. This is an important story that is very similar to the story of Malala.

Thank you for this copy, I was so excited to read this but unfortunately I tried several times to read it, it is poorly written and didn't captivate me

When women are educated it helps the whole village. This is an idea that has unfortunately been lost in some parts of the world, specifically Afghanistan under the Taliban rule. I really enjoyed reading this book which shows how women are expected to survive on the crumbs that are left when the men are done. This isn't just in relation to food but also to education and learning. Pashtana is a strong woman who was lucky enough to have a father who thought enough of her to make sure that she received an education and then supported her in her dreams of bringing more education to the girls of Afghanistan. Her struggles to set up her NGO and then show the men in the villages why educating women is important are well documented in this book. I especially found her story of hiding from and escaping from the Taliban forces as they retook control of the country as the Allied forces pulled out to be both gripping and insightful. I was aware of the struggles of many of the Afghans who had supported the Americans and other forces but to read a first-hand experience was especially impactful. I think it is really important that we read and understand these first-hand stories. The fact that she fought so hard and gave so much of herself to advocate for girls to be given proper education, and then had to run away from the country she loves and wanted to see flourish is heartbreaking. Her story is not over, and neither is the story of the nation of Afghanistan, hopefully, one day there will be a follow-up to this story that will tell of Pashtana returning to her country and find its girls have been given the opportunity to learn and grow and support their communities.
This book and its story was well-written and absorbing, and really showed the struggles of the people in all areas of the Afghan country and I would recommend it to my audience.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is a fascinating autobiography. The author outlined her experiences in a world most Americans will never fully comprehend. In my opinion, she described her circumstances very clearly and I was able to appreciate the difficulty of life for women in Afghanistan.
I found the narrative very engaging and emotional.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in women's rights, Middle Eastern studies, and education.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Books, for the advanced copy of "Last to Eat, Last to Learn" for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

"Last to Eat, Last to Learn" brings the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan to life. Ms. Durrani's passion, determination, and confidence are truly inspiring. There are no words for how touching it was to read about her relationship with her father and how he elevated her - no matter what anyone else said. It is obvious that his complete faith in his daughter is what gave her such passion, determination, and confidence.

After reading about the founding of Ms. Durrani's NGO, LEARN, I look forward to following up on how this innovative organization grows. "Last to Eat, Last to Learn" should have a place of honor in every US school library, and LEARN's tablets would be incredible tools to help educate American students in overpopulated and rural schools that lack broadband access. According to a recent FCC Report, "22.3 percent of Americans in rural areas and 27.7 percent of Americans in Tribal lands lack coverage from fixed terrestrial 25/3 Mbps broadband."

Much can be learned from Ms. Durrani and Ms. Bralo, not only about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Islam, but also how we could potentially increase educational opportunities in portions of the US. I highly recommend "Last to Eat, Last to Learn."

In the war-ravaged Afghanistan where women, under the 'new improved ' Taliban rule, stripped of all human rights – their work, visibility, opportunity for education, voice, healthcare, and mobility live in the most inhuman conditions, Pashtana Durrani, daughter of a well respected Afghan tribal chief and Amnesty International Global Youth Ambassador, fights against all odds to help the illiterate girls.

Last to Eat, Last to Learn - My Life in Afghanistan Fighting to Educate Women is an upcoming book in which Pashtana Durrani, a girls' education activist and the Founder and Executive Director of LEARN Afghan (an NGO delivering much-needed literacy and education to Afghan girls via covert community schools, online medium, etc.) portrays her struggles and hardships she faced while setting -up her dream project to educate girls in Afghanistan, her homeland.I received an advance online copy via NetGalley (expected publication time February 2024).

This read is Touching. It is intense, emotional, eye-opening and makes one think about one's blessings in life. The book starts with the childhood of the author in Pakistan as an Afghan tribal refugee. The struggles she faced as an outsider, of being a girl in a pro-male community, of being a tribal, etc., make us deeply emotional. From an early age, she witnessed the cruel and underprivileged condition of women especially, those related to education, and all of these paved the way leading to the formation of her dream NGO. As the daughter of an educated great tribal leader who understood the importance and power of education, one could say she was privileged. Pashtana exploited her privilege to help those underprivileged girls around her no matter what. In a community where girls were considered lower than animals, Pashtana's father ran a school within his home for girls and she took this 'family business' (in the book, she says, "Educating girls was our family business" which melted my heart to no ends) to a whole another level becoming a name of hope for hundreds and thousands of hapless Afghan girls.

The book starts with one of the most touching, intense, and hard decisions Pashtana took in her life: the decision not to go to the preparatory program of Oxford, one of the golden tickets out of the unpredictable life her community was leading in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She felt that she needed to be in the community, in the presence of those poor girls to be able to do something helpful. All of us can agree that not many people will be able to make such a momentous decision and turn their lives upside down. It is this fact, this courage to fight headlong, that made me a fan of this prodigious young woman.

Her never-ending tries to forge a way forward, the ingenious idea of the tablets in education, bravery even in the face of immediate death, and the profound love and support of her family aiding and abetting her in each step towards achieving her dream for her homeland; all of these makes us proud that love for fellow-beings is still a facade of humanity.

The book covers the atmosphere in Afghanistan between the period of 2016- 2021 when once again Afghanistan fell under Taliban rule. The conditions of tribal population in Afghanistan, the anti-tribal attitude of the pre-Taliban government, the government's western-oriented approaches in education that were not helping the population, neglect of rural areas, how the government is looting money in the name of non-existent education, and many such crucial issues are described in detail in this small but matter-of-fact book.

Written in a simple style, in heartfelt language, this profoundly inspiring autobiography will not disappoint the reader at all.

Last but not least, the title of the book. The words ‘Last to Eat, Last to Learn’ are the exact condition of women, not only in Afghanistan but in many such countries where fundamentalist governments rule. The title itself is enough to make one sit and think hard about the condition of women in our ‘ultra-modern liberal’ world.

This will surely be an eye-opener for those who take education for granted. Without a doubt, I will refer this to all those teachers and students out there. I will not be surprised if her book becomes a part of a school curriculum somewhere in the future.

Thank you Kensington Books, Citadel, and NetGalley for an advance copy of this wonderful autobiography.

What an amazing young woman Pashtana Durrani is, she not only succeeded in helping women in Afghanistan get an education but when everyone else said it was impossible, she found a way. I thoughly love reading this book and following Pashtana in her quest to help others get education.

As Miss Durrani leads us through her life, I find a heartwarming family that embrace love and education for everyone and that kindness and helping others was their goal. After Pashtana Durrani described the risk and strength her father had not only in his own life but in helping others, it made me wish that he would have lived long enough to watch his daughter succeed, but I think he still did. I also think that what she learn from her family was perseverance and doing whatever it takes to succeed, good for her. However, I was a little on her mother side when she didn't go to Oxford for an education, thinking that staying in Afghanistan would help her be closer to the women she wanted to help. I wondered the connections she would have made if she went to Oxford and if it would have made her mission more successful and not so hard.

I liked how she took us on her journey from the refugee camps to parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and what she had to do to complete her education and find a way to start her mission in life., it is very colorful and descriptive. I was very impressed when the elders of her tribe chose her to succeed her father as elder until her brother came of age, and it must have given her a wonderful feeling.

I can go on and on about this wonderful young woman but then you wouldn't read the book and you should definitely read this book. I hope she will write more books on what she is doing now and what her plans are going to be for the future, because I think it will be just as amazing.

I want to thank Kensington Books, Citadel and NetGalley for an advance copy of this wonderful autobiography.

This book made me feel so seen as a Pakistani and Afghan woman . I thank Pashtana and Tamara for writing this very important book .

Thank you for the arc .

I received a e-copy from Netgalley.

This was a important read about gender hierarchy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I have roots from east Asia and recognize a lot of the cultural issues brought up in this autobiography.

I received a copy of "Last to Eat, Last to Learn" from NetGalley. Pashtana Durrani, the author of this book. Was Born in Afghanistan for part of her childhood she lived there before her family had to move to Pakistan. She writes of what is it like to be girl growing up in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Girls do not have the same rights as boys. Her father had high status and backed up girls having a right to an education. Pashtana knew the importance of an education for girls. She fought hard for girls to get an education. she faces the tragedy of loosing her father to Covid and shortly after the Taliban forced their way back into power which made it more impossible for females to get an education let alone have any power. She writes a very honest and hard to read book about her struggles to have her voice and to also get more education for herself where she tries leave her country. I was very impressed by her perserverance to try and get an education for girls. A good interesting read that has me want to know more about her and the years into the future.

Pashtana Durrani's indomitable spirit and ferocity come alive in the pages of Last to Eat, Last to Learn. She writes about her life's mission, to open schools and teach Afghan girls while having to receive permission from warlords, tribesmen, and Taliban members. Despite the Taliban's crusade to keep all women down, Durrani continued her mission.

A truly incredible and inspiring story that reminds us of the importance of education and how much we take it for granted in the U.S.

Oh my goodness, I just finished this book and am in complete awe of Pashtana Durrani. She is a true hero and inspiration for Afghanistan, education and women everywhere.

Durrani Afghanistan. She includes narratives about living in a war torn country and being a refugee, but despite these setbacks she continues to strive for the greater good. We have always heard about the war and ongoing troubles in Afghanistan but they continued for so long we perhaps became immune to the human rights violations. It's horrible to think of people suffering so in this day and age.


I hope that Durrani will write another book to let us all know how she did when she came to the US, and what she has done since.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In Last to Eat, Last to Learn, Pashtana Durrani brings the reader to Pakistan and Afghanistan in her autobiography. Focusing on her life as a refugee in Pakistan and her return to Afghanistan as a NGO organizer to educate girls in rural Afghanistan. Durrani is honest about her struggles growing up and starting her NGO LEARN in Kabul. Durrani also emphasizes her learning experiences and the emotional highs of her life thus far, and she provides a detailed perspective about her life and her activism. Durrani’s language is powerful, vivid, and thought-provoking, and she does not shy away from the hard topics surrounding Afghan women, their education, and the political situation in the region. Durrani, throughout the book, provides background information and in-depth information about the internal infrastructure challenges that she ran into while building LEARN. Durrani even addresses more recent events, from COVID-19 to the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and she emphasizes the international coverage of events she experienced firsthand. By drawing attention to her work and her world, Durrani is giving voice to the struggles faced by Afghan women (under the Taliban and not) and the importance of spreading educational access to this population.

Thank you for drawing me into the world of Afghanistan. Thank you for your courage and undeniable perseverance. One can only imagine how much courage it took, but also your absolute commitment to enabling young girls to learn. I’m left speechless. This is a book well worth reading. I will certainly be reading it again

It was an enlightening read about another culture. Books like this helps to put a human context to the conflicts that are reported in news. I appreciated the insights into the community and the fortitude of the author. We should celebrate the people to serve and lead with their hearts.

Love learning about strong women working hard to make life better for women and girls. Because if we don't then who will.

An inspirational read. Not only is Durrani a survivor, but she’s an advocate for Afghan women and girls.
She makes a good point about invading countries failing to appreciate the history and the context of her country because what they set to achieve almost fails every time.
I knew a little about her culture, but leaned more from her book. Her campaign to educate girls is a life time commitment, not easy under the circumstances.
Anyone who thinks they can’t accomplish a goal, needs to read Durrani’s story.