Cheryl Benard is the Director of Research at the Boltzmann Institute in Austria and a consultant to the RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C. She is the author of several best-selling nonfiction books in German, primarily on women's issues, and has published two novels in the United States, including MOGHUL BUFFET, a murder mystery set in Pakistan, and TURNING ON THE GIRLS.
Benard lives in Potomac, Maryland, with her husband, Zalmay Khalilzad (who is a member of the National Security Council under Condoleezza Rice and was also a key adviser to President Bush during the Afghanistan crisis) and their children, Alex and Max.
Washington Post: "Invaluable to our understanding of Afghanistan."
Ahmed Rashid, author of the best-selling book TALIBAN: "An enormously important book...Cheryl Benard has done a major service to Afghan women and women everywhere by letting us hear the caged birds sing."
Booklist: "If Dorothy Parker had written BRAVE NEW WORLD, it might have resembled Benard's satiristic vision of a utopia designed and run by women."
Entertainment Weekly: "Benard spoofs utopian idealism and sexist stereotypes so cleverly that in this sly spin on the battle of the sexes, humor wins...a sparkling satire."
