The Afghan Women Who Won't be Silenced

Published: March 9, 2023, 6:53 p.m.

International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. "My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream." On this episode we hearing about, and from, the Afghan women who are telling their own stories, in their own words. In 2022, when this conversation was recorded, the first anthology of fiction written by Afghan women was published in English by UNTOLD, a writer development programme for marginalised writers in areas of conflict and post-conflict. In this episode we hear from three women from the UNTOLD writers programme - Lucy Hannah, founder of UNTOLD; Zarghuna Kargaar journalist, translator, and author; and Marie Bamyani, contributing author to the anthology. Hosting this discussion is Halima Kazem, Afghanistan Oral Histories Project Manager at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Santa Cruz.\xa0\n\u2014\nWe\u2019d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com.\xa0\n\nAt Intelligence Squared we\u2019ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we\u2019d love you to give it a go. It\u2019s packed with more than 20 years\u2019 worth of video debates and conversations on the world\u2019s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices