'The Lovers' is helping to shine a light on treatment of Afghani women

Cork-bound Rod Nordland admits he overstepped the mark in helping a young Afghani couple. But it also helped him shine a light on the awful treatment of women in that country, writes Marjorie Brennan

ROD Nordland’s book The Lovers is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the true story of an Afghan couple and how they defied death threats to be together.

For Norland, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Kabul bureau chief for the New York Times, it all began with one email in his spam folder; little did he know then how it would lead him to the story of a lifetime, one in which he would became a key protagonist.