Afghan Women in Berlin Reshape Culture Through Journalism, Law, and Art
To Understand the Power of Literary Writing in Exile, Listen to Afghan Women Writers
Their poetry and prose are expanding contemporary German literature—linguistically, thematically, and in perspective. What stories do they tell? For whom do they write—and why?
Three Afghan-born authors now living in Germany, each from different generations, discuss writing and continuing to write as an active process of social participation: about ruptures and continuities, belonging, self-assertion, and engaged citizenship. About literature as a unifying force—and about language and translation in the tension between being heard and truly listened to.
At the heart of the conversation are questions about the boundaries between personal, professional, and political writing—and what it means to write as a woman from Afghanistan. When does the term "exile" lose its relevance?
A discussion with:
- Zainab Farahmand studied Persian language and literature at Kabul University and has worked as a journalist since 2014. In 2018, she was honored as "Afghanistan's Best Reporter in Literary Journalism." Since 2022, she has lived in Berlin, where she works as a freelance journalist.
- Mahnaz Jafari was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan. She has lived in Berlin since 2014, where she studies law and advises refugees on asylum and residency rights.
- Nahid Shahalimi, born in Kabul, is a filmmaker, artist, and co-founder of PEN Berlin. She is the author of Where Courage Carries the Soul: We Women in Afghanistan and We Are Still Here! Brave Women from Afghanistan.
- Susanne Koelbl is a book author and award-winning foreign correspondent for Der Spiegel. In 2015, she founded The Poetry Project, an innovative literary dialogue initiative that supports young people with refugee backgrounds in expressing their experiences through poetry and engaging in equal dialogue with their host society.
- Manja Stephan is a professor of transregional Central Asian studies at Humboldt University of Berlin's Institute of Asian and African Studies. Her research focuses on mobility, migration, and art and activism in the Afghan diaspora.
- Sven Hansen will moderate the discussion. He is Asia editor for our website and curator of Han Sens Asientalk.
A Han Sens Asientalk event in cooperation with The Poetry Project, the Department of Transregional Central Asian Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin's Institute of Asian and African Studies (with funding from the German Research Foundation, DFG), Open Humboldt Spaces at Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Hermann von Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Techniques.
