My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women

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This will allow you some respite from the strong, emotive themes and to appreciate each story on its own merits. The short stories in this book are all very different from each other in tone, concept and also quality. I Don't Have the Flying Wings, My Pillow's Journey of Eleven Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Kilometers, Ajah, Blossom and Haska's Decision all stood out to me the most. Eighteen Afghan women’s works written in their native Pashto or Dari language were translated for this deeply impactful anthology.

Through tiny observations we, as readers, can identify with the plight of so many women in Afghanistan, whose daily lives are like our own, yet so significantly different in many – and oftentimes – terrible ways. Through tiny observations we, as readers, can identify with the plight of so many women in Afghanistan, whose daily lives are. In a Nutshell: A brilliant OwnVoices anthology, narrating stories about the ordinary citizens' lives in Afghanistan.

Men always want to speak on behalf of Afghan women, but now it is time for Afghan women to speak for themselves. 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.

Beautifully written and translated, these stories are gripping, insightful, often shocking, intense and extraordinary - The Lady You may also be interested in. The stories are set in various periods varying from the 1980s to the present day and feature men and women in their homeland as they brave the trials and tribulations of war, political upheaval, poverty, oppressive societal norms, misogyny, discrimination and much more. Zubair Popalzai), a woman motivates the other women in the village to band together to dig ditches to save their village from flooding. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's history, when these voices must be heard.

The stories that most stood out to me were "The Late Shift" by Sharifa Pasun that talks about how brave a female journalist as she deals with conflicting vocations of motherhood and truth. In the process they reiterate how much Afghan women could again say and do, if only they were allowed to. The authors and translators (most of the stories were originally written in Pashto or Dari) have done a magnificent job of painting a deeply intimate picture of what life looks like in a land that is so different from our own. Afghanistan, says Hannah, has never been heard or understood, so giving women the opportunity to bring their stories into a wider world continues to be essential.