![]() Project founder Lucy Hannah writes that it isn't safe at the moment to reveal detailed identities of the book's female wordsmiths - some of whom use pen names. The project was started in 2019 for women writers marginalized by community or conflict. ![]() The collection's 18 contributors were selected from among some 100 entrants to the Untold - Write Afghanistan project. It includes 23 gut-wrenching stories translated into English from Dari or Pashto. I did find hope, though, in the another anthology, My Pen is the Wing of a Bird - publishing in the U.S. The collection does, however, provide important detail and fascinating personal narratives that highlight how Afghan women and girls embraced the opportunities afforded them over the past 20 years. It isn't something easily found in the pages of this book. But we will only see the change we need when everyone - women, men, Afghans and the international community - stand shoulder to shoulder in true solidarity."Ī literary agent told me once that it's important for writers to offer readers hope. Shahalimi argues a similar point in the anthology conclusion: "We are still here, and we will continue to raise our voices. What's clear from the women featured in this collection is something I'd been told by a friend who played a prominent role in the previous Afghan government: There are many disparate opinions among Afghan women on how to deal with the Taliban, making it difficult to unite against their common enemy. "Over six hundred activists from all over the world have come together in support of us and our goal is to continue to grow that support."īarakzai ultimately fled her homeland because of growing death threats. "Our groups are now much larger than the five women we started out with," she writes. One is Razia Barakzai, who launched the first women's protests in Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban. Most of the women have experienced life as refugees. All are educated and benefitted from relatives who empowered girls in their families. They include a computer programmer, a parliamentarian, a filmmaker, a businesswoman, a peace negotiator, a singer, a former government minister and a journalist. The stories and interviews in the collection involve 13 Afghan women, young and old, who've excelled in their various professions. "As of August 15, 2021, there is no longer any hope." "It is only by telling you about the past that you can truly comprehend what we once had and what we have repeatedly lost," Shahalimi writes in in the introduction. In a forward, author Margaret Atwood recounts how her construction of women's roles in The Handmaid's Tale was influenced by her trip to Afghanistan in 1978. We Are Still Here, a compilation of essays publishing this week - edited by Afghan-Canadian activist, author and filmmaker Nahid Shahalimi - is a crucial collection of first-hand accounts. The return of the Taliban only increased the obstacles and the danger for the contributors, many of whom have fled. Both projects were launched with great difficulty before Kabul fell, as generations of misogyny and war have stifled female expression. We watch in anguish as its leaders reestablish their punitive, hyper-conservative emirate that forces Afghan women and girls out of sight.īut the Taliban hasn't succeeded in silencing the female half of Afghan society, whose voices at home and abroad ring out in two new and powerful anthologies: We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom and the Fight to Be Heard and My Pen Is the Wing of A Bird. This week marks a year since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, a bitter anniversary for many Afghans and foreigners, like me, who lived and worked there.
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