The Sky is a Nest of Swallows, From Behind the Burqa: The Voices of Afghan Women

by Susannah E. Pabot (Editor)

Collection of essays and poems by Afghan women working in the Afghan Women's Writing Project. http://www.awwproject.org Compiled for the International Literary Festival at Brown University, March 12-16, 2012.

79 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

Reviews

[Vera Marie]

The Afghan Women’s Writing Project gives women in Afghanistan a chance to express themselves. Masha Hamilton started a haven for women who want to tell their stories. She realized that those stories needed to be heard outside of Afghanistan, and the women needed to know that someone is listening, so a website was born. Now there is a book. The dedication page says:

Journalist and novelist Masha Hamilton founded the Afghan Women’s Writing Project in May 2009. She dedicated the project to the memory of Zarmeena, a mother of seven who was brutally put to deat in Taliban-held Afghanistan before ever having the chance to tell her own story.

The stories published on the AWWP website are amazing. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to some voices.

From And Nothing Less By Meena Y

I find it ironic that a religion based on modesty and equality for all has turned into an unjust and unfair system for its own daughters. We Muslim women are punished at every stage of our lives for the sole sin of being born female.

From the poem, If I Don’t Write by Roya

With my writings I write about/Things I can’t talk about./When I write/I feel fresh/

I wear my favorite dress of my desires/Sit under the tree of my thoughts/And I write and write./

I stop?/Maybe/When I am not able to breathe./When…

You can pick up a copy of The Sky Is a Nest of Swallows, which was compiled at Brown University, or purchase it in an e-reader Edition. However you buy, 100% of profits go to the project.

This review is from A Traveler's Library.