Mirman Baheer Association’s members meet every Friday at the last floor of the Ministry of Culture in Kabul. Middle age women and young girls meet together to read their poems, eat cakes and sip tea. Even these relaxed meetings are part of the cultural struggle that each one of them is fighting every day.
Their poems talk about freedom, love and life, their language is Pashto, the language of the Taliban, a dialect used in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Love is a sensitive issue in Afghanistan, it’s not always clear if the poems talk about spiritual or earthly love, but some of these women have to suffer the consequences of their behaviours outside the traditions. A girl from Kandahar burnt herself after her mother discovered some of her poems, which revealed too many details about her love.
Despite the old Persian tradition, poetry is always been publicly banned to women.
Members of parliament, radio and TV journalists, doctors, teachers and students, the women of Mirman Baheer Association are all coming from progressive families. All of them are struggling for women rights and culture, the only means and hope to break the cycle of poverty and wars that ravaged their country since decades.
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"If only I knew You In the spring of my life You would have been The guide of my life But I only find out about you When my spring and summer are gone."
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"I loved dark eyes for ages
I loved twinkled eyebrows for ages
You don't have either
But there is something else in your eyes
If I keep gazing at them I might loss my sanity." -
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"Roses took your smile
Tulips took your beauty spot
In the ocean of your eyes my heart sank
But my demanding well enjoyed your love." -
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"I am an Afghan girl
I can not leave my traditions
I can’t fall in love
But I am in love
my lover is not with me
The life is life less
I can take a life less life
but I can’t take you not be with me" -
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"As a goodwill
As a gift of life
I recycle your name
And I wish your love in return." -
