Book Review: My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird

My Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“One of the many joys of reading is that the literature of a world far from our own has the potential to alter how we see ourselves.”

- Lucy Hannah, Founder of Untold Narratives (from the Afterword of My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird)

My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is an anthology of eighteen stories written by women writers based in Afghanistan (some of whom have managed to leave in light of recent upheaval). In simple prose, they tell us stories inspired by the daily lives (some based on real-life events) of those living in Afghanistan. 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.

In the story “I Don’t Have The Flying Wings” by Batool Haidari (translated from the Pashto by Parwana Fayyaz), a young boy, struggles with his gender identity and is punished when he is discovered trying to be himself when alone at home.

“I wanted to be seen; I was hidden from everyone else, but I wanted to be seen, myself for myself.”

In “D is for Daud” by Anahita Gharib Nawaz (translated from the Dari by Zubair Popalzai), a school teacher risks everything to help a young boy whose sister is being abused by her husband.

“When I see her, I understand why women are called siah sar. She represents the true sense of the word: one who is destined for darkness.”

In “My Pillow’s Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six Kilometres” by Farangis Elyassi, (translated from the Dari by Dr. Zubair Popalzai), a woman who manages to escape her war-torn homeland and move to America, attributes her sleeplessness to her favorite pillow she has left behind and vows to carry it back with her on her next visit.

“I have finally accepted that my peaceful sleep was not bound to my pillow: my sleep was bound to the warm embrace of my country, it was bound to visiting my beloved mother, it was bound to the chatter I shared with my sisters, to the friendship and silliness I shared with my brother, to the laughter I enjoyed with my friends. My peaceful sleep was because of the small service I used to do for my country, because of my streets, because of a sense of freedom one can feel only in one’s own country.”

“The Red Boots”, by Naeema Ghani, (translated from the Pashto by Shekiba Habib and Zarghuna Kargar), revolves around a young girl whose happiness knows no bounds when her father buys her a second-hand pair of red boots, even though they are too small for her feet.

"It doesn’t matter what colour your boots are–they could be red or black or blue. Or maybe for you it’s a dress or a notepad or an umbrella that you chose. The important thing is that you chose. And I chose a pair of boots."

In “Blossom” by Zainab Akhlaqi, (translated from the Dari by Dr. Negeen Kargar), A father who opposed his daughter’s education in favor of her getting married relents after his daughter adamantly decides to go back to school after it is bombed and many of her friends have perished.

“We don’t know how long any of us has. Go, my child, and live the way you want to live.”

In “Ajah” by Fatema Khavari (translated from the Dari by Dr. Zubair Popalzai), a woman motivates the other women in the village to band together to dig ditches to save their village from flooding.

“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?”

In the other stories we meet a single mother who braves explosions to go to work every day, a recently widowed mother who decides to fight being forced into marrying her brother-in-law, a young girl is sent to a wedding as a suicide bomber, a woman takes drastic measures when her husband takes a second wife because of all her eight children are daughters, a group of women who value their self-respect prefer to quit a much-needed job after one of them is harassed by their male manager and a man who returns home after years of captivity only to find that his family has moved on.

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. These stories do not delve into detail about the politics or leadership in Afghanistan but tell us about the people in their own voices. Much time and effort went into this endeavor – from collecting these stories, coordinating with the authors and translators and dealing with security concerns (which is why details about the authors have not been provided and while some authors have used their real names , others have published their stories under pen names). It is impossible to read this book and not be affected by it – I was in turn saddened, enraged and incredibly moved by these stories and needed to take breaks in between. This is the kind of book that makes you pause and reflect and appreciate the freedoms and privileges we enjoy and, more often than not take for granted. This book should be read, shared and talked about because these voices need to be heard. I must applaud the efforts of Untold Narratives CIC whose Write Afghanistan project made it possible for these authors to share their stories with the world.

“Afghanistan has never been heard or understood. Who are these people? And what do they want? How did they endure forty-two years of war? To find the answers, we must talk about these questions. And we would like to share our words with you. Make our words familiar to you.” –(from the Afterword; written by an author who has contributed to this collection.)

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the digital copy of this powerful and thought-provoking collection of stories. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released(U.S) on October 18, 2022.