«Books printed by the Mujahedeen government and the Taliban are useless. This is how first-year schoolchildren learn the alphabet: 'J i s for Jihad, our aim in life, I is for Israel, our enemy, K is for Kalashnikov, we will overcome, M is for Mujahedeen, our heroes, T is for Taliban ...'

War was the central theme in maths books too. Schoolboys - because the Taliban printed books solely for boys - did not calculate in apples and cakes, but in bullets and Kalashnikovs. Something like this: 'Little Omar has a Kalashnikov with three magazines. There are twenty bullets in each magazine. He uses two thirds of the bullets and kills sixty infidels. How many infidels does he kill with each bullet?'

Books form the Communist period cannot be used either. Their arithmetic problems deal with land distribution and egalitarian ideals. Red banners and happy collective farmers would guide children towards Communism»  

Seierstad, Asne, The Bookseller of Kabul. Virago: London, 2003. Pàgina 62