My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s history, when these voices must be heard. Women once again have been forced to remain absent from mainstream life, stripped of their hard won rights, which is such a depressingly regressive step for so many.

Eighteen Afghan women’s works written in their native Pashto or Dari language were translated for this deeply impactful anthology.

My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's history, when these voices must be heard. The anthology, My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird, was published this week by MacLehose Press, but many of the team involved have never met. A collection of stories like this written by Afghan Women where we get to gain an insight into their stories and experiences are too important for a little book reviewer like me to even begin to judge. Afghanistan has millions of Pashto and Dari speakers with little or no local support for creative writing, literary translation, or literary editing. Skaitydama tuos trumpučius, gal ir ne super literatūrinius "/, bet tikrai širdį draskančius apsakymus vis pagalvojau - damn, aš visiškai nebeseku žinių apie tai kas dabar dedasi Afganistane.

But a thing I experience with short story anthologies in general is that they change from new perspective to new perspective so quickly that I can sometimes struggle to maintain a connection with a character or event in each story.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.

She has been reporting from Afghanistan since 1988 when she lived in Kabul and has been a frequent visitor ever since. 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. Many thanks to the authors, translators, publisher, all those who brought this book to fruition, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Negeen Kargar), A father who opposed his daughter’s education in favor of her getting married relents after his daughter adamantly decides to go back to school after it is bombed and many of her friends have perished.Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 18, 2022. Much time and effort went into this endeavor – from collecting these stories, coordinating with the authors and translators and dealing with security concerns (which is why details about the authors have not been provided and while some authors have used their real names , others have published their stories under pen names). Companion’ a story about an older woman whose children live abroad struck me because it reminded me of my own mother. Highlighted sometimes are culturally specific aspects – the anxiety around producing baby daughters when sons are revered and desired; the ramifications of husbands taking multiple wives with the blessing of society; and women just trying to go about daily life, amidst mortar attacks whilst trying to hold down a job or continue with education. Thank god, I said to myself, that the sun is not someone's property, otherwise I'd have to pay rent for that as well.

So no matter what atrocities and struggles are mentioned in this anthology, things are even worse now. To give a special note to the following entries that took my breath away either, my literal breath from crying or due to the unexpected gasp caused by a twist that I did not see coming and was so grateful to have read it. My peaceful sleep was because of the small service I used to do for my country, because of my streets, because of a sense of freedom one can feel only in one’s own country. The stories I want to re-visit and discuss with others because they are so shocking, but also quite beautifully written and the descriptions of food and landscape paints an intriguing country that in other instances one might want to visit. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's history, when these voices must be heard.This anthology sets out to make the voices of Afghan women heard, and it absolutely accomplishes that. 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.