My Dear Kabul: Twenty-one Afghan women, twelve months, one group chat

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In August 2021, as the Taliban approached the gates of Kabul, twenty-one women writers in Afghanistan came online in their WhatsApp chat group: they asked what news others had heard and if everyone was safe. These women had been brought together as a writing group. They were about to publish their first collection of short stories, while working regular day jobs. Some were students, some newly married, one was a grandmother: all were afraid of what was now to come. Over the next year, in the makeshift refuge of their WhatsApp group, they shared the day-to-day reality of life after a fall. Publishing on the anniversary of the Fall of Kabul, this is the women's courageous collective diary: in it the writers watch cities transform, schools close, families change and freedoms disappear. They share stories of chaos, protest and flight - and of life continuing. Check-points are a daily trial; men start behaving differently. Children can't afford the ice-cream man's wares; passports are near impossible to obtain. Together, their messages form a powerful chorus of resistance and solidarity.

Untold Narratives works to develop and amplify the work of writers marginalised by community or conflict. Its translators and editors work collaboratively with writers to develop their craft, connect them to one another and share their stories with readers in their local languages, and globally in translation.

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