E. CE MILLER<\/a><\/p>\n We all know that being a writer is\u00a0hard<\/i>. Being a woman writer, with all that industry bias and those glass ceilings out there, is even harder. But nothing can quite describe the daring, sometimes terrifying, experience of being a woman writer in Afghanistan\u00a0\u2014 except maybe the words that Afghan women writers produce themselves.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re interested in what it\u2019s like not only to be a woman in Afghanistan, but to be a woman writer there, you\u2019ll want to check out the\u00a0Afghan Women\u2019s Writing Project<\/a>\u00a0(AWWP.) Since 2009, AWWP, a nonprofit organization (for which I volunteer: full disclosure!), has allowed readers a glimpse into the hearts and minds of women who\u00a0come from many of Afghanistan\u2019s 34 diverse provinces\u00a0by hosting\u00a0writing workshops both in the country and online. They then make their writing available worldwide via AWWP\u2019s online magazine to spread their words.<\/p>\n Their most recent feat of publishing strength is\u00a0the anthology,\u00a0<\/a>Washing the Dust from Our Hearts<\/a><\/i>, just released from Grayson Books.\u00a0Washing the Dust from Our Hearts<\/i>\u00a0features the work of 29 women poets and essayists, whose writings come directly from the AWWP workshops themselves. This collection is\u00a0the first bilingual (English and Dari) print anthology<\/a>\u00a0to be published by the organization; their other in-print collection,\u00a0The Sky Is A Nest Of Swallows<\/i>, was published in 2012, and is available in English.<\/p>\n Pari, a Dari translator and AWWP writer (AWWP doesn\u2019t use full last names or publish faces, and sometimes publishes anonymously, for safety reasons) was ecstatic at the opportunity to publish in both English and Dari, telling Bustle:<\/p>\n It was amazing because I had a collection of my poems in the book, and I was the translator of my own poems. I was in tears writing in Dari, imagining presenting our work to our Afghan audience. Imagine our society \u2026 reading our work, think[ing] about our work. This book gives me hope; to be proud of my work. I wish I could explain [in] words [from] how [many] difficult circumstances every writer in our project writes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Azadi [freedom] is the name of my unborn daughter, Fatima\u2019s essay title says it all: \u2018The Bravest Girls in the World<\/i>.\u2019\u00a0Most girls and women we work with enjoy some family support, but all face suppression within society at large, and must battle the widespread belief that a good girl is a submissive girl, one who doesn\u2019t rock the boat.\u00a0These writers must first battle their own fears to resist cultural norms.\u00a0The proof of victory is in their words, in the fact that they are making changes in their lives, in their families, one step at a time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"3c5422f0-0237-0133-f48e-0e18518aac2f\"](\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/3c5422f0-0237-0133-f48e-0e18518aac2f.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nthe perfume of love in my poem\u2019s dress.
\nAzadi is my son\u2019s smile when he says,
\nSob ba khair, Madar jaan! [Good morning, mother!]
\nIt is the prayers of winds,
\nwhich forgive our sins,
\nthe voice of rain, whispering
\nin our ears, washing dust from our hearts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n