{"id":474,"date":"2010-04-16T03:07:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T10:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kelseys.net\/?p=474"},"modified":"2017-06-06T17:55:12","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T00:55:12","slug":"474","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/474\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Women Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Afghan Women\u2019s Writing Project<\/a><\/span> offers a way to support Afghan women emerging writers in a delightful, eye-opening and very meaningful way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Novelist Masha Hamilton began this project to give voice to Afghan women. The deteriorating opportunities for women from her first visit in 2004 until her return in 2008, inspired her to create a project where women could share their thoughts from the safety of their own homes,\u00a0unfiltered by family members or the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women who join the project are mentored, via back and forth emails, as they polish the writing of their experiences. Many of them participate in secret. Their mentors, female authors and teachers, volunteer on a rotating basis. \u00a0Writing workshops are taught in online classrooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have met and interviewed several women in this project and will be sharing some of their life stories in my presentations upon my return. Some of the most promising of these writers have told me that they came to believe in their writing abilities due to the supportive comments left by readers on the pages of the website. These poems, short stories and essays provide a window into the lives of Afghan women that we would not have otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, one woman writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Let the world know<\/span><\/h3>\n

I am a poem.
\nMy soul is crazy.
\nno matter what happens next,
\nno matter if no one reads the verse of my mad thoughts,
\nno matter if dust covers my poetry papers,
\nI am a poem.<\/p>\n

I write about the waves of my soul\u2019s water.
\nMy poem tastes like a glass of black tea
\nwhen you are tired.
\nIt is the spice of my lunch every day.<\/p>\n

My poem sounds like the sky singing in summer,
\nlike rain in the spring.
\nMy poem sounds like
\nparrots talking, sparrows chatting
\nin a lonely tree in the valley.<\/p>\n

I bloom, bloom, bloom.
\nWhen I write about mirrors
\npain, life, tea, sparrows, eyes,<\/p>\n

I write, write, write.
\nNo matter that, in her hands, Nature
\nhas a hammer, leveled
\nat my head, poised to kill my poem.
\nI don\u2019t give up.
\nI am a poem.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0 Roya<\/p>\n

And another:<\/p>\n

While the schools Burn<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cI am burning,\u201d
\nsays the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho will save me?\u201d
\ncries the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are my students,
\nthe teachers, our friends?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do the Taliban burn me?\u201d
\nThey are not literate.<\/p>\n

Students fear.
\nTeachers receive threats,
\nget kidnapped, beheaded.<\/p>\n

Friends, families fear.<\/p>\n

Unread books are sad.
\nThey too, burned
\nby guns that write with fire.<\/p>\n

Knowledge, understanding
\ngrieve.<\/p>\n

Is there anyone
\nany organization
\nany country
\nany international society
\nwho will help us overcome our loss,
\nthis war,
\nour Afghanistan?<\/p>\n

We wait, hope, want.
\nPlease, help us
\ninvite the return of knowledge.<\/p>\n

By Freshta<\/p>\n

Below is an excerpt from an essay written by a woman returning to her home in Mazar Sharif:<\/p>\n

Who Will Stop The Crimes?<\/a><\/h3>\n

\u2026After leaving Fatema\u2019s house, I saw a small girl trying to clean a car. People on the street were laughing at her. I thought: Why is she on the street? Why isn\u2019t she studying instead? How can I take them out of the darkness? I know I alone can\u2019t do anything, but we as a people must start anew. We should never let any girl be a victim of her family. We must give women the courage to let their voices be loud and to know their value. We must not ignore women when they talk about their rights.<\/p>\n

Who will stop these crimes against women? Who will hear our voices? Who will hold our hands and take us out of the darkness? Who can hear the meaning of our tears? Who will bring peace to those who are begging on the streets?<\/p>\n

For all the questions, I have one answer\u2014unity. Our country is one of the poorest in the world because women live like slaves and do not participate in society. We as a people have forgotten to value each other as human beings. We are all equal. It is our combined hands that can destroy or build our country. If we do not try, nobody will help us.<\/p>\n

By Shogofa<\/p>\n

And another excerpt from<\/p>\n

The Blaming Game<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2026Now my heart wants to shout directly into the ears of my people: \u201cFor Allah\u2019s sake, stop blaming others for our miseries and problems.\u201d I want to reach out to millions of Afghans, President Karzai included, and tell them: \u201cWe have had enough of the blaming game. Let\u2019s not play it anymore. Let\u2019s take responsibility for our own actions and our own faith, for our people cannot take any more pain of dirty politics and lies.<\/p>\n

By Meena<\/p>\n

You can help by commenting on the writings<\/a> and donating money<\/a> for flash drives and netbook computers. Your generosity can help open prison doors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Afghan Women\u2019s Writing Project offers a way to support Afghan women emerging writers in a delightful, eye-opening and very meaningful way. Novelist Masha Hamilton began this project to give voice to Afghan women. The deteriorating opportunities for women from her first visit in 2004 until her return in 2008, inspired her to create a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,6,1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghan-womens-project","category-awp-2010","category-education","category-other","category-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kelseys.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}