11/10/2025
Longtime Hong Kong Women in Publishing Society member Shikha Lamba edits works by and about Afghan women. π«Ά
ππ πππ ππππ: ππ«π’ππ’π§π π¬ ππ² πππ π‘ππ§ ππ¨π¦ππ§, published in ππ ππ€π πΏππ‘πππππ¦ π
ππ£πππ€βs πππππ‘ππ¨π± series, is a work of witness that gathers the voices of Afghan women writing through fear, exile and erasure. Curated and guest edited by ππ‘π’π€π‘π πππ°π‘π§ππ² πππ¦ππ, this special issue appears in ππ ππ€π, a feminist journal committed to equality and creative resistance headed by Editor-in-Chief ππ¦π’ππ πππ‘ππ². Thank you to Cha: An Asian Literary Journal contributor ππππ’π« πππ, Interviews Editor of ππ ππ€π, for drawing our attention to the feature.
Bringing together the work of thirty-seven Afghan women and girls, ππ πππ ππππ creates a conversation that crosses boundaries of language, geography and struggle.
The contributors include poets, fiction writers, artists, activists, teachers, students and professionals who speak of love, loss, endurance and survival. Among them are "Nightmare with Open Eyes" by Muska; "The Right to Breathe" and "Invincible" by Masoma Mohamadi; and "Losing All Hope" by Nigin, which confront the suffocation of daily life under Taliban rule. The youngest voices, gathered in "A Shining Moon Among the Stars" by girls aged ten to fourteen, write with a fragile but unwavering hope. "Little Bride: The True Story of a Little Afghan Girl" by Roshna Amiri recounts a stolen childhood, while "The Story in My Palms" by Beheshta Adel and "Leaving" by Beheshta Adel and Nadia Salimi trace the ache of displacement.
Visual artists and photographers Tahera Fasehi, Qadira Alizada, Fatima Wojohat, Angela Gulistani (Kimia) and Alina Hosseini turn grief into colour and form, transforming endurance into art. The issue also includes conversations with Zala Ahmad, Atina Sultani, Farida Khairkhwah and novelist Nadia Hashimi.
In her Editorβs Note, ππ‘π’π€π‘π πππ°π‘π§ππ² πππ¦ππ reflects on the responsibility of bringing such a collection into being. She writes of the invitation to amplify Afghan womenβs voices and of the moral imperative to listen and to connect. Although not Afghan herself, her long advocacy for Afghan women and children, and the influence of Nadia Hashimiβs heroines, guided her towards this act of curation.
She reminds readers that nowhere are womenβs voices more endangered than in Afghanistan, where a deliberate policy of exclusion seeks to silence them from public life.
Many of the works arrived through uncertain channels of email and social media, some translated from Dari and Farsi, others written in flight. Alongside poetry and prose, the issue includes essays such as "Coercion" by Somaia Ramish, "Dignity in the Pit of Humiliation" by Marwa Karimi and "The Kind of Feminism Afghan Women Need" by Nigin, as well as book reviews by Sara Nazim and Mina Sharif.
ππ πππ ππππ is a chorus of survival and remembrance, a testament of Afghan women who, though threatened into silence, continue to speak, to create and to claim their place in the conscience of the world.
β§ ππ πππ ππππ: https://usawa.in/matchbox/editors-note_we-are-here-writings-by-afghan-women/
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