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Afghan Feminist Thought, part 3
Editor’s note: In this final part of a series our writer discusses ways in which men control the interpretation of the Quran and other structures governing Afghanistan’s religious culture and...
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First Comes Love…
He looks like himself. No one has the same features and heart he has. His face smiles like the sun and gives my heart warmth. His clothes sit perfectly on his skin. His shirts are small size. He has...
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Attacked
Editor’s note: Our writer dedicates this poem to her friend who works with the United Nations and was beaten and stabbed in an attack by the Taliban. She survived, but the dreadful incident continues...
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Victim of Virginity
We are in Sumaya’s house. She is about twenty years old, and I am nine. She is kind to me and I like to watch her cook in the dark kitchen when the sun’s light peeks through high holes in the wall. The...
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Victim of Virginity, part 2
Editor’s note: In part 1, Mahnaz told the story of her relative Sumaya who was raped by a relative when she was about thirteen. Her parents punished her by requiring her to spend the rest of her life...
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Prophet Muhammad Needs No Defenders
As of 2009, there were 1.6 billion people around the world who claim Islam as their religion and they respect the Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims regard the Prophet like a father. So when the...
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Legitimizing Inequality
I write this poem for women who are victims of wrong cultural and religious beliefs. —Mahnaz We were cooked.They made us raw,burned us and buried us. Thosemen and women who carry thestick in their...
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The Horse-Cart Driver
Before I learned from anyone, my intuition taught me to understand gender violence and react against it. I was nine years old when we were living in Herat province, in western Afghanistan. We lived...
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The Horse-Cart Driver, part two
In part one, Mahnaz, who was nine years old at the time, was riding in the front seat of a horse-cart—with her mother and sister seated in the back—when the driver grabbed her hand and would not let...
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Mahnaz was born in western Afghanistan to a Shia family that placed high value on education. When she was eight years old, the Taliban came to power; Shias were particularly vulnerable to the Sunni...
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Women Are Not Like Honey
“Women are like a jar of honey, the jar should be always closed; otherwise men, who are like flies, will gather around the honey,” the man tells me. He is trying to convince me of the necessity of...
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In My Room
I sit in the corner of my room Staring at my pale chicken soupMy books scattered around meFilled with numbers and wordsThe only word I see is the white“GRE” on the purple backgroundSometimes I feel...
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My Early Life
Editor’s note: Our author was born in Iran and came to Afghanistan with her family as a child. This is the first part of a series on her growing-up years. The first time my family left Afghanistan...
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Living with the Taliban
Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series. The first part, My Early Life, recounted how our author’s family returned to Afghanistan from Iran in 1994 when she was eight years old. We had been...
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Missing You
I start going into silence, making a dream to find youYou are not here to give me peaceTo touch my hair and say, “Everything is OK”You are not here to drink tea with me and laugh at our favorite show...
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“Voice of Afghanistan” Singer Provokes Rude Commentary
Editor’s note: The Voice of Afghanistan singing competition broadcasts on Tolo TV in Afghanistan on Friday nights. The reality show began broadcasting at the end of May this year after producers...
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My Wild Imagination
Editor’s note: This poem was written for the International Day of the Girl, October 11, 2013. I am one of those women with a wild imagination.I imagine being free of harsh claws gripping my...
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Dear Grandmother
I miss you. I know you are in the grave and even though the flesh decays, the soul escapes and flies to the sky. It is memories that remain from a person and I have many from you. I remember the good...
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Beneath a Mother’s Feet
Heaven is beneath a mother’s feet,sing the Afghan men sing softly into our ears. A woman is not a Siasar—a black head.She is a human, should be treated like one. Heaven is beneath a mother’s...
View ArticleMahnaz introduction
Mahnaz was born in western Afghanistan to a Shia family that placed high value on education. When she was eight years old, the Taliban came to power; Shias were particularly vulnerable to the Sunni...
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