Starting August 2022, this country bulletin series offers a curated cultural women-focused list for each country in the world. It will go through them in alphabetical order and take (approximately) eight years to complete. Subscribe to this newsletter to ensure you receive a country bulletin in your inbox every other Tuesday.
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Afghanistan
Continent: (Central) Asia
Capital City: Kabul
Official languages: Pashto & Dari
The history of Afghanistan summarized (in a 14-minute video).
Aryana Sayeed is Afghanistan’s most famous female singer and an outspoken activist for Afghan women (Spotify link). This 2017 interview shows how caring (and strong) she has and continues to be in the face of terrible threats.
Spend your morning/afternoon/evening grooving to some more Afghan music!
The first anthology of short fiction by Afghan women, My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women, was released earlier this year (it is on pre-order on Bookshop but can be found on Book Depository). Eighteen writers from the country's two main linguistic groups (Pashto and Dari) tell stories developed over two years through UNTOLD's Write Afghanistan project. This collection provides the reader with an opportunity to hear from Afghan women in a manner that is rarely possible. With war and suffering as the backdrop, most of the stories focus on small moments, memories, and time periods in the lives of everyday women - individuals whose stories are never told, whose thoughts are never shared. While often difficult and heartbreaking to read, this is one of the most important books I have recently read.
“And why not?” Ajah said, with a quiet challenge in her voice. “They till the land; they raise your children. They lift buckets of water from the well every day. How difficult is digging a tiny channel when we women come together?”
- Ajah by Fatema Khavari.
Translated from the Dari by Dr Zubair Popalzai
Humaira Ghilzai is a cultural advisor, speaker, educator, and cultural competency trainer for film, television, and theatre. She also runs the blog Afghan Culture Unveiled where she shares stories from Afghanistan, insights about Afghan culture, and recipes for preparing authentic Afghan cuisine. An attempt to make this vegan Saffron Rosewater Rice Pudding will be happening very soon!
Engraving from Alexander Burnes' Travels into Bokhara. November 1833. Image via Wikimedia Last year, Eva zu Beck, a female travel vlogger spent some time traveling around Afghanistan including in Bamyan or the "Valley of Gods" located in central Afghanistan. The province looks like a natural paradise with its high mountains and beautiful Band Amir lake. The Bamyan Valley was also home to two 6th-century Buddhist statues (one 125 ft, the other 180 ft) that were carved into the side of a cliff. Devastatingly, the Taliban ordered their destruction in 2001 - a horrific attack against the historical and cultural heritage of Afghanistan - and now they are apparently running the ruins as a tourist attraction.
Meanwhile, in Bamyan, women continue to be incredible. Freshta, a 22-year-old, is still running (solo) an informal school for up to 50 children, most of whom are girls.
Mazar, Afghanistan. Photograph by Farzana Wahidy. Image via her website. Frame by Frame is a fascinating documentary following four Afghan photojournalists who are working to establish a photography revolution in the years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. (Under their regime, photography was prohibited.) One of these photographers is Farzana Wahidy, who “takes pictures to express her feelings as a woman and to raise the voice of Afghan women from a men dominated world”.
Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots civil society organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York. WAW works to help Afghan women and girls exercise their rights to pursue their individual potential to self-determination, and to representation in all areas of life—political, social, cultural, and economic.
Each year, the BBC releases a list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. In 2021, women from Afghanistan made up half of the list. With the resurgence of the Taliban in August 2021 forcing many of them to flee the country, these women are recognized for their bravery and achievements. They are an inspiration to us all.
The 50 Afghan women on the BBC’s list are as follows:
Lima Aafshid: an award-winning poet and writer whose poetry and articles challenge patriarchal norms in Afghan culture.
Muqadasa Ahmadzai: a social and political activist who organized a network of more than 400 young women activists to help survivors of domestic violence.
Rada Akbar: a visual artist whose work deals with the themes of misogyny and the oppression of women. Since 2019, she organised annual "Superwomen" (Abarzanan) exhibitions for International Women’s Day.
Leena Alam: an award-winning TV, film and theater actress and human-rights activist, known for appearing in feminist television shows.
Dr Alema: a prominent scholar in philosophy and social sciences, a deputy minister for human rights and civil society in the State Ministry for Peace, and founder of the independent Women's Political Participation Committee.
Wahida Amiri: a librarian and book lover and frequent protester.
Zuhal Atmar: a businesswoman who founded Afghanistan's first waste-paper recycling factory, Gul-e-Mursal.
Crystal Bayat: a social activist and human-rights advocate, who figured prominently in protests against the Taliban in 2021.
Razia Barakzai: government worker at the presidential palace before the Taliban took power. Now, an activist and one of the women behind the slogan #AfghanWomenExist.
Nilofar Bayat: captain of the national wheelchair basketball team and a prominent advocate for women with disabilities.
Faiza Darkhani: one of few people working in the field of climate change in Afghanistan, she is an assistant professor and former director of the National Environmental Protection Agency in Badakhshan province - and a vocal advocate for women’s rights.
Pashtana Durrani: founder and executive director of Learn Afghanistan.
Shila Ensandost: a teacher for whom raising awareness of the rights of women and girls to education is a priority.
Saeeda Etebari: an entrepreneur and an internationally renowned jewelry designer and maker.
Sahar Fetrat: a feminist activist and the force behind numerous protests aimed at tackling gender stereotypes.
Fatima Gailani: one of four female peace negotiators to sit with the Taliban in 2020, trying to seek a 'fair political settlement', she has been involved with humanitarian work for the past 43 years.
Ghawgha: a talented singer, songwriter and composer, her songs are often about girls and women in Afghanistan.
Angela Ghayour: founder of an online school in Herat.
Najlla Habibyar: founder of Blue Treasure Inc and Ark Group that helps Afghan women set up businesses and sell their goods abroad without middlemen.
Laila Haidari: founder of Mother Camp, a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul that has helped nearly 6,400 Afghans since 2010.
Zarlasht Halaimzai: co-founder and chief executive of the Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI).
Shamsia Hassani: Afghanistan’s first female graffiti and street artist, her murals portray women as confident, powerful, and ambitious.
Nasrin Husseini: in her veterinary medicine course at Kabul University, Nasrin Husseini was one of only two women in a class of around 75 students.
Momena Ibrahimi: as a member of the police force, she was sexually abused by her senior and decided so speak out about it as well as other abuses in the police force.
Freshta Karim: turned buses into mobile libraries to form Kabul-based NGO Charmaghz which brings books to children.
Amena Karimyan: a civil engineer, instructor at Herat Technical Institute, and one of the first women in Afghanistan to focus on astronomy.
Aliya Kazimy: worked with the Red Cross as a volunteer, launched a confectionery and bakery business for women, wanted to become a lecturer.
Hoda Khamosh: a women's-rights activist who runs awareness programs in Afghan schools to promote open conversations about periods.
Mahera: Dr Mahera is still busy seeing patients in the gynecology hospital where she works and providing front-line care.
Maral: women’s-rights activist and campaigner
Masouma: a female prosecutor who worked in the judiciary gathering evidence and building legal cases.
Salima Mazari: one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, her district put up significant resistance to the Taliban in 2021 and, until the fall of Kabul, was one of the few to remain unoccupied.
Mohadese Mirzaee: Afghanistan's first female commercial airline pilot.
Fahima Mirzaie: Afghanistan’s first and only female whirling-dervish dancer - a dance that is part of the Islamic Sufi Sama ceremony.
Basira Paigham: a gender-equality and gender-minorities activist for the past eight years.
Rehana Popal: an immigration and civil-law specialist, and the first Afghan woman to practise as a barrister in England and Wales.
Razma: an accomplished musician who plays an instrument that is usually reserved for men.
Rohila: a schoolgirl who has been affected by the exclusion of girls from schools since the return of the Taliban.
(Dr) Ruksana: a surgeon, assistant professor, and founder of an organisation that provides basic healthcare to the most vulnerable.
Halima Sadaf Karimi: one of nearly 70 female MPs in her country, she was the only woman from the Uzbek minority in the Afghan Parliament.
Roya Sadat: co-founder of Roya Film House and the first Afghan female director to emerge from the Taliban era, for two decades her films featured the voices of Afghan women.
Shogufa Safi: conductor of Zohra, Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra.
Sahar: a footballer who played for a local football team and met many friends through playing sport.
Mahbouba Seraj: women’s right activist who co-founded the Afghan Women’s Network.
Anisa Shaheed: one of the country’s most high-profile reporters formerly of TOLOnews.
Fatima Sultani: a mountain climbing athlete who is the youngest woman to climb to the summit of Noshakh - the highest peak in Afghanistan.
Sara Wahedi: founder of Afghan technology start-up Ehtesab, a crisis alert app that delivers real-time security, power and traffic alerts to Kabul residents.
Roshanak Wardak: a former member of parliament and a qualified gynecologist, she is an advocate for girls’ education.
Benafsha Yaqoobi: a disability activist who founded Rahyab Organisation to provide education and rehabilitation to visually impaired people in Afghanistan.
Zala Zazai: the first female deputy chief in the police’s criminal investigation department in Afghanistan’s Khost province.
“Afghanistan and its citizens have been abused and violated by extremists and world leaders for decades. But we have never stopped working for a progressive country and we will live in a free and prosperous Afghanistan again.”
- Rada Akbar
Thank you so much for reading the first edition of this country series!
Please leave a comment of anything you have learnt from this newsletter and if you have any other Afghan recommendations to add to the conversation!
Talk to you soon!
xxx