Veiled courage: Inside the women’s resistance against violence through their writings

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Afghan women’s courage in resisting physical and other violence and victimization through their writings. It argues that the absence of a strong Afghan female voice has led numerous female writers to highlight women’s issues in Afghanistan. It demonstrates the courage and gradual awakening of women in Afghanistan to fight against violence and victimization in a culturally complex and patriarchal society. Thus, this is an appraisal of their struggle and highlights women’s issues in order to spread awareness about gaining a voice by women being vital for survival.

ABSTRACT IN DARI OR PASHTO

این مقاله در رابط به مقاومت زنان افغان در برابر خشونت جسمی ، کلامی و قربانی از طریق نوشتارشان می پردازد . این مطالعه استدلال می کند که فقدان یک زن نویسنده قوی افغانی باعث شده است که تعداد زیادی از نویسندگان زن به موضوع زنان در افغانستان توجه کنند . این مطالعه نشان دهنده شجاعت و بیدار شدن تدریجی زنان در افغانستان در مقابله با خشونت و قربانی شدن در جامعه پیچیده و مردسالار است . بنابراین ، این مقاله اثبات می کند که ارزیابی مبارزات آنها برای برجسته کردن مسئله زنان و نیز آگاهی در مورد دست یابی بقای، صدای انها بسیار مهم است .

KEYWORDS:

• Afghan women’s literature
• identity
• feminist awakening
• patriarchal system
• resistance

KEYWORDS:

• ادبیات زنان افغانستان; شناسایی; بیداری از حقوق زنان; سیستم مردسالاری;مقاومت

Notes on contributors

Muhammad IMRAN is a final year Ph.D. student in the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University China. His research interests include Postcolonial Literature, Comparative Literature, Feminism, and Gender Studies. He has published in World Literature Today, Postcolonial Studies, Asian Women, and British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

Xiaofei Matthew WEI is a Professor of American and Jewish Literature in the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. His research interests include Translation Studies, American Literature and History, Jewish Literature, Asian Anglophone Writings and Gender Studies. He has published in many Chinese and International Journals.

Yuee CHEN is an Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China. Her research interests include Chinese Literature, Translation Studies, Asian Anglophone Writings and Gender Studies. She has published in Chinese and International Journals.

Samina AKHTAR is a Ph.D. final year student in the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Her research interests include Postcolonial Literature, Feminist Literature, Shakespearean Studies, and Gender Studies. Recently, she has contributed a chapter to Shakespeare and Asia published by Routledge. Besides, she has published works in Postcolonial Writings, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies and International Journal of English Linguistics.

Notes

1 According to the Afghan Ministry of education report in 2012 there is a 34% literacy rate with only 18% for females and in rural areas, where 75% of the population resides, 90% female and 63% male are unable to read and write.

2 Landay is a typical and local form of poetry with a few formal rules and regulations, and largely recited in rural areas of Afghanistan by women, but some men as well. Each piece of Landay has 22 syllables: 9 in the first line and 13 in the second line. Usually the poems end with the sounds of “ma” or “na” sometimes they rhyme but often do not. However, in Pashto language they lilt word by word internally with the sharpness of content and the ability to express a variety of themes like war, love, separation, sorrows, jokes and a call to arms, etc.

3 Free Women Writers is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, and all-volunteer organization of writers, students, and activists based in Afghanistan and the diaspora and working for a more equal and just Afghanistan. It works to improve the lives of Afghan women through advocacy, storytelling, and education. Its collection of stories and blogs can be accessed at https://www.freewomenwriters.org/.

4 A short video on Pashtun Landays, based on the collaboration between Griswold and Murphy, can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XMlT9ST4n8.

5 In 2015, Afghanistan was the source of some 85% of the world’s opium production; in recent years it also has become one of the world’s most addicted societies, with an estimated 1.6 million drug users, or about 5.3% of the country’s total population, one of the highest rates in the world. Nationwide, one in 10 urban households is thought to have at least one drug user (in the city of Herat, near the Iranian border, it is one in five. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/world/asia/that-other-big-afghan-crisis-the-growing-army-of-addicts.html?_r=0).

6 “Half-brained” is a typical term used for women in Afghanistan, with a local being “Naqes-ul-aqal.” It is used to refer to women to say they are not mentally perfect like men.

7 The norm in Afghan society is that men do not call women by their names. Recently, a campaign on social media that is becoming popular was launched by women to make people aware that they have their own identities linked to their own names. This campaign in local language is translated as # WhereIsMyNmae https://www.nytime.com/2017/07/30/world/asia/afghanistan-womens-rights-whereismyname.html.

8 This proverb has many variants and is not only found in Pashto but also among other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The version given in Bartlotti and Khattak (2009, p. 227) is a euphemised variant, not explicitly mentioning the woman. The same proverb is discussed in detail by Boesen (2002, pp. 17–43).

9 This is a collection of stories about the defense of women’s rights. They named the book after Rabia Balkhi, an influential Persian poet from the 900s who was killed by her brother, the king, for falling in love with a slave.