Afghanistan

Article

The Gloomy Sunday

Writer and PEN Afghanistan member Neelufer Suhrabie writes about that fateful Sunday in August 2021, when the Taliban made their way to the gates of Kabul to seize power for the first time since the...

Text: Neelufer Suhrabie May 28 2025

Poetry

Poems by Mahbouba Ibrahimi

Mahbouba Ibrahimi was born in Kandahar in Afghanistan. Like many other Afghans she grew up in Iran. She has been writing poetry since her teens, but Ibrahimi is also a trained documentary film...

By Mahbouba Ibrahimi December 18 2022

Article

A Thematic Study of Contemporary Poetry in Afghanistan

Sayed Abutaleb Mozaffari has taken an interest in the impact of political events on contemporary Afghan literature. In this article he deals with the relationship between poetry and politics...

By: Sayed Abutaleb Mozaffari October 16 2022

Article

The State of Freedom of Speech and Media in the Past Year

Elyas Nawandish is an Afghan journalist and editor at the popular digital magazine Etilaat Roz. As a journalist, he worked in the past half a decade to promote freedom of expression, propagate...

By: Elyas Nawandish October 09 2022

Fiction

'Dogs Are Not to Blame.'

In modern Afghanistan years of instability and internal displacement have created a challenging environment for writers of all kinds. The majority of Afghanistan’s writers that have been given...

Author: Masouma Kawsari May 05 2022

Article

Let’s Not Forget Educating Our Children

Aziz Royesh, renowned teacher in Afghanistan, born in 1969 in Kabul. He founded the Marifat School in Kabul. In 2015, he was one of ten nominees for the International "Teacher of the Year Award" by...

Text: Aziz Royesh April 08 2022

Poetry

Taking my root off

Mother has a beautiful girl The sky my colourful shawl The mirror with all its glittering owes me a mouthful of smile *...

A poem by: Mahtab Sahel March 04 2022

Article

An Observation on the Role of the War Impacting Contemporary Afghan Literature:

Zia Qasemi, born 1975 in Behsud, is an Afghan poet, author and also guest editor for this issue. He has published two novels and three collections of poems in Iran and Afghanistan and has won several...

By: Zia Qasemi, guest editor March 04 2022

Article

“I am currently in a state of despair”

A Biography I was born on February 17, 1990.My hometown is Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.My birth coincides with the...

Text: Mahtab Sahel March 04 2022

Editorial

It began with a call for help.

In the beginning of August 2021, when the Taliban still had not consolidated complete control over the country, Swedish...

Leader: Elisabeth Löfgren, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, Swedish PEN March 04 2022

Poetry

Poem by Hoda Khamosh

Hoda Khamosh is poet, media activist, and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan. She attended the Merci Poetry Festival in Gotenburg the 4 th of September through a recorded video. She read this...

Poem: Hoda Khamosh September 24 2021

Article

For us Afghans Violence and Conflict are more dangerous than the Pandemic

In April and May this year in Kabul more people have died from the ongoing conflicts and violence than from COVID-19. R Musawi describes how the pandemic, fear, death, corruption, and explosions...

Text: Roya Musawi August 19 2020

Editorial

Who is Dancing in the Shadow of Corona?

Who is Dancing in the Shadow of Corona? Perhaps I have never been so thoroughly reminded of my privileges as I have been...

Text: Casia Bromberg June 10 2020

Fiction

The princess and the slave—how love kills in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, where four-fifths of the population is illiterate, poetry has always had a strong position—especially among women. The Afghan writer and journalist Nushin Arbabzadah writes here a...

Text: Nushin Arbabzadah July 02 2012

Article

Freedom of speech in Afghanistan—A decade after the fall of the Taliban regime

Afghanistan has never before had more news outlets, with 200 print media, 44 television stations, 141 radio stations and at least eight news agencies. On the other hand, in the past decade it has...

Text: Bashir A. Khan July 02 2012