Litquake – Hair on Fire: Afghan Women Poets

In Hair on Fire, five female Afghan poets wield language to combat the loneliness, absurdity, and claustrophobia of life in a war-torn country and its diaspora. There are long hypnotic beards tangled with mass extinctions; hateful men burning grapevines; black blindfolds; jinn in chadors; and condoms advertised every eight minutes on TV. Interspersing these are tender moments: one poet describes brushing her daughter’s hair, while another imagines a tree growing at the center of a room, undisturbed by the bombs outside. In the wake of the Taliban’s escalating war on Afghan women’s rights, Hair on Fire is a blazing tribute to a group of exceptional poetesses and a reminder of what we lose when voices are silenced. Diana Arterian, Samantha Cosentino, Armen Davoudian, Sabrina Nouri, and Marina Omar read from their translations of poetry by Nadia Anjuman, Mahbouba Ibrahimi, Mariam Meetra, and Karima Shabrang.

Part of Litquake’s Words Around the World
Sponsored by Center for the Art of Translation & Two Lines Press