September 12, 2022
This revelatory anthology of stories grew out of the Write Afghanistan project, which connected editors and translators to Afghan writers, many of whom use pseudonyms to protect their safety. Though a handful of entries are inspired by news events (a suicide bombing, the destruction of a girls’ school), most show glimpses into the day-to-day lives of Afghan women and girls, taking place against the backdrop of four decades of conflict, with episodes of violence happening just outside the frame. The cleverness with which women find ways to subvert oppression and assert their own independence is a theme that runs through several stories, including the exceptional “Ajah” by Fatema Khavari, translated from the Dari by Zubair Popalzai, whose heroine’s story carries the heft of folklore. “My Pillow’s Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Kilometres” by Farangis Elyassi, also translated by Popalzai, tackles the heartache of migration in ways both humorous and mournful, while others, such as “Haska’s Decision” by Rana Zurmaty, translated from the Pashto by Shekibo Habib, illustrate the toll of illiteracy. The stories vary considerably in literary quality, but taken together they form a remarkable portrait of lives largely invisible to readers outside Afghanistan. This brims with humanity.
October 15, 2022
A selection of chilling short fiction from 18 Afghan women writers, translated from Pashto and Dari. "Short stories lend themselves to fractured, pressured environments," writes Lucy Hannah in the informative afterword to this heartbreaking and heartfelt anthology, a product of the Untold Narratives project of which Hannah is founder and co-director. Calls for pieces went out in 2019 and 2021, reaching into even rural parts of Afghanistan, and hundreds of stories made their ways to the editors and translators--in at least one case, having been written by hand, photographed, and passed through a chain of people using WhatsApp. The writers involved supported each other with an online diary through the ensuing fall of Kabul and the Taliban takeover; it's bewildering to imagine that their lives are now even more embattled than what is portrayed here. That said, the stories range widely. Several tell of oppressive marital and familial customs that condemn women in conditions of emotional torture. Several describe the terror of daily life, with bombs falling and lives ending randomly all around. The newscaster reads the news, the teacher drives to the school, the student goes to find her friend, with no confidence that any of them will live through the day. In at least one story, "An Imprint on the Wall" by Masouma Kawsari, translated by Parwana Fayyaz, the protagonist has already been blown up. In "My Pillow's Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred, and Seventy-Six Kilometers" by Farangis Elyassi, translated by Zubair Popalzai, a family flees this nightmare only to be miserable in "the long silence of America." Two of the most violent stories--one describing a suicide bombing at a wedding, one an attack on a girls school--are followed by notes explaining that they are inspired by true events and dedicated to their victims. One of the only happy endings in the book occurs when the widow of a murdered man succeeds in refusing to be forced to marry her brother-in-law and finds a way, against all odds, to support herself selling homemade cookies. The sacrifices people make for one other and the unbreakable attachment people have to home, no matter what hell that home may host, are repeated notes that echo in the heart. If we can do nothing else for these writers, may we reward their courage and talent with a wide and caring audience.
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