My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women

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taken together [these stories] form a remarkable portrait of lives largely invisible to readers outside Afghanistan. The stories are set in various periods varying from the 1980s to the present day and feature men and women in their homeland as they brave the trials and tribulations of war, political upheaval, poverty, oppressive societal norms, misogyny, discrimination and much more.

Their stories reveal, in all their meagre variety, a resilience that blooms behing the tattered curtains. Afghan woman, particularly post-August 2021, are afforded few opportunities for their inner worlds to become externally realized.My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s history, when these voices must be heard. I have never come across a local publisher willing to publish a book without asking for money from the author,” she said. It will leave you with a lump in your throat and a heavy heart full of possibilities, much like the women pouring their hearts out in this collection. This is the kind of book that makes you pause and reflect and appreciate the freedoms and privileges we enjoy and, more often than not take for granted. There are visceral scenes and descriptions that are rich in the sights, sounds and smells of the country… the clay walls that emanate a specific feel, and the rich fragrances of cooking and herbs waft off the page.

Not that it matters much on the macro level, but I prefer understanding the editorial choices in an anthology.Finally, ‘Blossom’, inspired by an insurgent attack on a high-school, was heartbreaking and beautiful in equal measure. But a couple of the stories do offer hopeful endings, which is the best we can expect given the circumstances. The stories that most stood out to me were "The Late Shift" by Sharifa Pasun that talks about how brave a female journalist as she deals with conflicting vocations of motherhood and truth. There are some beautiful moments, but there is an awful lot of really harsh reality as experienced by women in Afghanistan that if nothing else will make you grateful for how much more freedom we have in the UK. In a Nutshell: A brilliant OwnVoices anthology, narrating stories about the ordinary citizens' lives in Afghanistan.

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In “D is for Daud” by Anahita Gharib Nawaz (translated from the Dari by Zubair Popalzai), a school teacher risks everything to help a young boy whose sister is being abused by her husband. But today girls and women are being deprived of this fundamental right: they are no longer allowed to attend secondary school and higher education, which must be having an impact on primary school enrollment (if it is even allowed in practice and not just rhetoric from an abhorrent “government”). I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. The fact of this book: that the stories were written down, that they were gathered and translated and eventually published together in this splendid volume is a monumental acheivement. This collection is essential, it is the coldest, hardest truth, and yet it rings with such hope and perseverance.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.This is one hell of a powerful book and I want to slap people round the face with it to make them read it. In “My Pillow’s Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Kilometres” by Farangis Elyassi, (translated from the Dari by Dr. In the story “I Don’t Have The Flying Wings” by Batool Haidari (translated from the Pashto by Parwana Fayyaz), a young boy, struggles with his gender identity and is punished when he is discovered trying to be himself when alone at home. This book has taught me to cherish some things I have (like freedom, right to speech and living in a peaceful environment), which for Afghans is a far-off dream.