Welcome!
It's been a busy few weeks, with the start-up of a third workshop, author
and journalist Ann Blackman signing on as project director, Tahmina Popal in
Kabul becoming our Afghanistan Liaison, and the recruitment of four interns,
Lilliane Atlihan, Bianca Dobrikovic, Maria Hakimi and Kristen Hewitt, to work
on public outreach and fundraising/grant-writing efforts.
It's been an even busier few weeks for our Afghan women writers. A national
election kept many of them at home and away from computers for up to a week as
the Taliban stepped up violence in an effort to intimidate voters. But when
they got to the computer, they wrote strong and compelling material.
One of our writers, Seeta, will be working with author and journalist Barbara
Fischkin during the fall and early winter and will be included, as the
only online student in Barbara's Feature Writing class at Hofstra
University, where the Journalism Department has shown great enthusiasm for this
endeavor. It is hoped that along with advisement from Barbara, Seeta will team
up with an Honors College student so the two can edit each other's work. Seeta
will also be able to participate in online discussions with other students.
According to Barbara, Seeta, who has taught herself English, has already
shown skill as a storyteller and her next offering will be about a
provincial tailor who works despite a debilitating physical disability.
We've also expanded our fund raising goals. In addition to working to supply
each of our women writers with laptops and jump drives, we are also creating a
proposal to create Afghanistan's first women's-only Internet café as part of
our ongoing effort to, as intern Lilliane Atlihan put it, create a safe and
nurturing space for intellectual and creative exchange. Ted Achilles, founder
of SOLA, is our partner and guiding light on the project.
But the most important news we have is the work of the women
themselves. There have been more strong essays than I have room to highlight. Below are a few to get you going.
Be in touch with any questions. Thank you.
Masha Hamilton
|
|
Moment of Patience
On those black days, when I had to tolerate life like a
broken hand, I can't forget the kindness of my father. At the beginning of
every school year, he would buy supplies for my brothers, and he bought for me
too. After five years of Taliban government, my room was like a bookstore... It
was like visiting an apple garden and the gardener forbids you to eat an apple.
By Roya
Click here to read the full story.
|
|
The Marriage Proposal
It requires a lot of guts
to fall in love in Afghanistan. This was particularly true during the Taliban
era, when the separation of male and female societies was taken very seriously
and often enforced with violence. My mother's 25-year-old cousin, a dentist,
certainly had guts. He proved it by falling in love with S, one of his patients
By Meena
Click here to read the full story.
|
|
Her Daughter is with Her
 My father offered to let us live with his second wife. My
mom accepted and wanted to start a new life, but my stepmother ... wanted my
mother and us children to be her servants. We were locked in the house and
treated very badly.
By Jeena
Click here to read the full essay.
|
|
A Walk
We were both afraid
We changed our path
We ran to another street
but the car followed.
By Seeta
Click here to read the full poem.
|
|
Child Labor in Afghanistan
Ballal, a six-year-old boy,
gives his mother flowers at a provincial ceremony this Mother's Day. But on the
same day, a young midwife is fatally shot on her way to work, and the
government blames the Taliban.
By Freshta
Click here to read the full story.
|
|
My Neighborhood: Poor, Yet Kind
My sister-in-law got sick at 3 a.m. My brother called one of
our neighbors who happens to be Pashtun and woke him up. Although he could have
easily refused ... he got up immediately.
.
|
|
A Word From Our Teachers
Stacy Parker Aab
chronicles stories for The Katrina Experience: an Oral History Project, and is
the author of the upcoming memoir Government Girl: Young and Female in the
White House (Ecco/HarperCollins). Visit her min-site at HarperCollins.
Magical. How else to describe sitting at my computer in Harlem,
USA, and connecting with young women in Afghanistan, women who want to better
themselves as communicators so that they can be heard at home and all over the
world? I cannot thank Masha Hamilton and her partners enough for creating
this cyberspace classroom. At times, it feels like we're meeting in our dreams.
When I taught creative writing in inner-city Detroit, I knew as
writers-in-residence we could not expect to solve our students' problems
at home and in the city. However, we could listen. We could
witness. And most importantly, we could share with them the tools to help
them better their own lives and circumstances.
Students make their dreams real when they share them on the
page. Students grow their burgeoning ideas in this way, too. This is true
for all writers. What starts off as a spark in the mind becomes a full
fire the more we write it down. Our visions come to life. The better
we articulate these visions, the more likely we are to see them come to
fruition. Because of AWWP, I am witnessing talented, inspiring young women hone
their God-given gifts. With these gifts, they will make change.
We can make change, too. Because we fight a war in their country, it is
imperative that all of us stay informed, and speak out and act up when it is
clear that we are creating more suffering than hope. Let us keep everyone
on the ground in our thoughts and prayers. And let us seek out the
best ways to bring more justice, and more peace, into their lives and ours.
Ann Blackman (www.wildrosebook.com) has spent three
decades reporting from Washington for TIME magazine and The Associated Press,
and is the author of three biographies, most recently Wild
Rose, Civil War Spy.
It is a privilege to work with these young,
courageous Afghan women, who are willing to circumvent Taliban rebels, often at
great risk to themselves and their families, to give voice to their hopes and
dreams and disappointments. Just finding safe access to a computer is an act of
bravery. Their essays and poetry offer a rare glimpse into the hearts and minds
(and secrets) of women whose determination to get an education reflects a deep
passion for life and uncommon resilience. I get up each morning eager to help
them learn because these young women are working to create a new Afghanistan.
Nancy Antle
(www.nancyantle.com) is the author of
many notable and award-winning works for young adults and children and a
teacher for Gotham Writers' Workshop.
Whenever I teach I assume I'll learn something from my
students - about writing in new and unique ways, about topics I've never
considered - about life. I thought
this would be especially true of the Afghan Women's Writing Project so I
readily agreed to participate. I
was not disappointed.
These young women wrote heartfelt essays, articles and poems
that taught me more than I could have imagined. I learned about life for women under the Taliban - the secret
schools, the attacks on girls. I
learned about the growing threat of kidnapping for ransom and about children
feeling the obligations of adults - to work to support themselves and their
families.
What I did not expect to feel from reading their words was
hope. These strong, brave women
are the face and future of change in Afghanistan. They give me hope because
they have not given up. When a
dream is lost they create another one - like Freshta deciding that she could
find power in being a writer when she couldn't become a doctor. Or Seeta who has become a journalist
even though she encountered resistance and distrust at first. Or Meena who dared to openly protest a
law allowing marital rape. I was
expecting to encourage these women but instead they did that for me.
And they have taught me to pay attention. For me, Afghanistan is no longer some
vaguely distant place where US soldiers are fighting and dying. I know these young women and something
about their families now. My hope is that more and more people in the US can read
their words and know them too.
|
|
Contact AWWP:
For more information on the Afghan Women's Writing Project please contact:
The Afghan Women's Writing ProjectMasha Hamilton, Project Founder
686 Sterling Place Brooklyn, New York 11216
Phone: 917.821.6119 / Email: masha@mashahamilton.com
The Afghan Women's Writing Project was begun as a way to allow the voices of Afghan women - too often silenced - to enter the world directly, without any mediation. This project is possible only because of the outstanding American women authors and teachers who generously donate their time and energy. Additionally, the tireless contributions of webmaster extraordinaire Jeff Lyons, web designer Rose Daniels and our technical director Terry Dougherty have been crucial. Photography thanks and credit goes to Kathleen Rafiq and Heidi Levine. Our inspiring partners are SOLA and the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation; please visit their websites.
,
|
|
Donations:
Online Donations for Afghan Women Writers:
Many of our students and women writers, especially outside of Kabul,
cannot get to an Internet cafe due to security considerations. A laptop
at home and a jump drive would allow them to write their pieces, and
then ask a male relative to send the work at an Internet cafe. A $20
donation will buy a flash drive and $500 in donations will buy a laptop
for our women writers. No contribution is too small. Thank you for
considering it.
Your credit card donation will be handled by Friends of
Afghanistan's secure Paypal payment. Or you can mail a check made out
to Friends of Afghanistan:
Terry Dougherty , 15021 Prairie Park Cv, Hoagland, IN 46745.
Write SOLA or Afghan Women Writers on the check.
We will send your tax deductible donation to the Peter M. Goodrich Foundation for the purpose you indicate.
|
|
To stay informed about the latest news, events, and other developments with the Afghan Women's Writing Project, please CLICK below and join our mailing list. We appreciate your support.
|
Sponsors & Friends:
Please visit our sponsors as a way to thank them for their wonderful support:
|
|
