This is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, senior member of the Taliban, whose memoirs, translated from Pashto, chronicles his extraordinary life. In compelling prose, Zaeef describes his childhood in rural Kandahar, his rise in the Taliban and his appointment as ambassador to Pakistan in 2000. He also details his subsequent arrest and imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay after September 11 and the fall of the Taliban reign and offers a challenging counter-narrative to the standard account of Afghanistan since 1979. My Life with the Taliban provides a personal and privileged insight into the functioning of the Taliban and helps explain what drives men like Zaeef to take up arms against the foreigners who dare to invade their homeland.