Banu Mushtaq was an unknown writer from southern India when she won the International Booker Prize in May 2025. Her short story collection, The Heart’s Lamp, illuminates the lives of women in southern India. In her acceptance speech she said, “No story is ordinary,” adding that even the tales of remote villages carry universal truths.
Her words have stayed with me, making me think of the narratives written by Afghan women. We often feel our voices go unheard or that no one cares about our stories. Yet, as Bano Mushtaq reminds us, once a story is written it no longer belongs to a distant place; in time, it will reach the world.
Listening to the bitter stories of Afghan women requires a generous heart and deep patience, for their words are a continual refrain of suffering — a pain that seems endless because their hardships are unending. When a writer approaches these women, she carries not only the duties of a journalist but also the heavy responsibility of trust: to convey their pain-filled stories to the world in a way that reflects not only the sorrow but also the courage and resistance that define these women.
Many women feel a sense of triumph when they hear their stories will be written, as if the act of being recorded completes the mission of their suffering. Some eagerly follow up, asking when their story will be published and how people have responded. Media that values Afghan women, listens to them, and provides a reliable platform is a vital resource, as are writers who travel to remote villages or hidden corners of cities to faithfully record these experiences.
In September 2024, I met Chinese journalist Weiling Hong, who wanted to report on the life of a woman journalist working under Taliban rule. Together, we wrote Letters of an Afghan Woman, which included links to several narratives I had published for Zan Times. Within hours of its release in China, the article was viewed by hundreds of thousands of readers and focused new attention on the situation of Afghan women. Website data shows that many Chinese readers then visited Zan Times to read more of its stories.
Soon after, a female editor from LIGHT Publishing in China emailed me, saying she had read my narratives on Zan Times and that they had touched her heart; she felt she understood the pain of Afghan women. She asked me to send more stories like those I had written so she could publish them as a standalone book for Chinese readers.
I have been writing short stories since 2020 and have many unpublished works. I realized it was time to create a complete book. I chose 18 short stories centered on the suffering and hardships of Afghan women. Four had previously appeared as narratives or essays in Persian-language newspapers, while the remaining 14 were unpublished. After signing a contract, I sent the full manuscript to the publisher. After reading all the stories, my Chinese editor wrote that she found them deeply moving and could feel the pain behind every tale.
My book, Letters of an Afghan Woman, was published in China on August 4, 2025, with an initial print run of 10,000 copies. When I wrote these stories, I never imagined a publisher would contact me with an offer to print them. Now that the book is out, I feel these narratives may stand as the only testament to the lives, resilience, and suffering of 18 Afghan women — women who have rarely been allowed to appear or shine in Afghan society.
Since 2023, every story I have written for Zan Times has chronicled the immense hardships Afghan women endure because of political, geographic, traditional, and cultural forces. My first piece, written under a pseudonym, described how Kabul’s walls, once covered in vibrant art, had been plastered with grim slogans enforcing the hijab. Later, I wrote about secret home schools and about women seeking a way forward for themselves and their children. One young woman, formerly the director of a busy office, turned to work in the beauty industry after losing her job. After the Taliban shut her salon, she carried a bag of makeup and tools to clients, allowing her to financially support her ailing mother despite the risks.
Zan Times has become a true place where women’s suffering is heard. These painful stories are not kept in solitude; I share them so others can understand the reality Afghan women face today. I still hear the voice of an elderly neighbour who was forced to migrate at the age of 75 for the sake of her grandchildren’s future. Speaking of her home, she said, “This house is like Mecca and Medina to me.” She had to abandon that sacred space, not knowing what new hardships awaited her frail body.
Over the last three years, Zan Times itself has become an important archive of Afghan women’s narratives. Stories arrive daily; some remain unpublished because of security reasons. The website is now a trusted source for well-documented investigations and reports on the lives of Afghan women since August 2021. Many accounts come from courageous women who risked their lives, endured torture in places like Department 40, Pul-e-Charkhi, and Badam Bagh prisons, and later sent us their testimonies, asking that they be safeguarded and published.
In a recent editorial meeting, we discussed creating a book drawn from these published narratives. Today, Afghan women are writing their own history with their own pens. It is a history meant to ensure that no girl will be denied an education or the right to tell her story in the future.
Khadija Haidary is a Zan Times journalist and editor.
