Under a Kabul Sky: Short Fiction by Afghan Women

by Elaine Kennedy (Translator)

These twelve short stories dive deep into imaginary worlds where everyday life is marked and marred by war. They speak of wounded love, captured women, confinement, talismans, borders, wolves. They give expression to the voices of Afghan women who would like to change the fate of people like Nâzboo, Khorshid, Hamid and so many others.

Originally published by Éditions Le Soupirail in 2019, this collection was the first volume of short stories by Afghan women to appear in France. This edition from Inanna Publications brings these stories—and their unique perspectives*#151;to English-speaking readers for the first time.

The collection includes stories by Wasima Badghisi, Batool Haidari, Alia Ataee, Sedighe Kazemi, Khaleda Khorsand, Masouma Kawsari, Mariam Mahboob, Toorpekai Qayum, Manizha Bakhtari, Homeira Qaderi, Parween Pazhwak and Homayra Rafat.

“When you finish Under a Kabul Sky, you’re haunted by the spellbinding sound of the wounded voices of these Afghan women.”
—Guillaume Richez, Les Imposteurs

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook

125 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2022

Reviews

[Lynn Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars 🌟 Such a powerful and heartbreaking collection of stories. Some hit harder than others but overall, this book was as devastating as it was important.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really recommend this if you are looking to get a glimpse at the lives, stresses, interests and concerns of Afghan women from a multitude of voices. I found it interesting that many of the stories really drop you right into it--you have to get your own bearings and figure out who is who. Very interesting.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories explores war, death, love, family, and loss. There are desperate struggles and a desire to make sense of an unfair, war-torn world. These women's voices are compelling. There are lessons in compassion and understanding for us outsiders who may only think of Afghanistan through the lens of Western news.

Many elements can be lost in a translated book, but a good one will pull you in regardless. I love reading outside of my own experience. The writing style and pacing in some of these stories are very different to what I'm used to but that just takes a little adjustment on my part. There are also cultural/religious differences that may not match my personal beliefs, but that is part of what interests me too.

Although not all of the stories work for me, the overall collection is very good. My favourites are Metamorphosis of the Spider by Mariam Mahboob, Lady Khamiri, The Confidant by Homeira Qaderi, and The Other Side of the Window by Homayra Rafat. The themes run through all of the stories so even if the styles can be vastly different, none of them feel very out of place.

I would absolutely recommend this collection for those who enjoy short stories, who want to read more diversely, and who don't mind darker themes. Besides war-related triggers, there are also the following content warnings: abortion, child death, abuse, sexism.

I am very interested in finding more books and experiencing more from writers in this region. Women from Afghanistan are not a monolith. It's exciting to think of more voices being accessible as translated work becomes more and more prominent.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Western perception of Afghanistan is of a country perpetually rocked by armed conflict, explosive violence, political strife and grotesque social injustice. Afghan women have suffered greatly at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists and in 2021 saw many of their civil rights and hard-won freedoms, achieved during 20 years of democratic rule, vanish overnight when the Taliban overran the country and installed itself as the governing body. This constant state of chaos and turmoil is generational, and the country’s literature is beginning to reflect tensions and fears that cast a dark shadow over daily life in a country that has been ripped to pieces time and time again. Under a Kabul Sky, originally published in 2019 as Sous le ciel de Kaboul by French publisher Le Soupirail, and now rendered into English by Canadian translator and editor Elaine Kennedy, includes 12 stories by female writers from Afghanistan and neighbouring countries that chronicle lives of deprivation, torment and agonizing uncertainty. The authors, born between 1958 and 1984, are highly educated and most have published extensively. It will come as no surprise that the dominant motif here is war, or that many of these fraught narratives possess nightmarish qualities that make them hard to summarize. In “Two Shots,” by Wasima Badghisi, a reluctant soldier, ordered by a superior to fire his gun into the depthless black of night, even though he can’t see any target, discovers later that his action has had unexpected and bitter consequences. “Number Thirteen,” by Batool Haidari, is narrated by the corpse of an Afghan woman who has sought refuge in another country but fears deportation. Having been killed in an explosion, she is lying on a tray in a morgue, waiting for her husband to arrive and identify her. In “Night of the Wolf,” by Alia Ataee, Khorshid has ventured out to a clandestine meeting place in the desert near the Afghanistan-Iran border where her brother sells stolen gasoline to refugee smugglers. She’s searching for a cell phone that he’s hidden there, but has become trapped when her foot slips between the slats of a metal grate. As night falls and she grows delirious, weakened by lack of food and water, she hears the howling getting closer and recalls her encounters with men, who, in her fevered recollections, morph into wolfish predators. And in the volume’s longest and final story, “The Other Side of the Window,” by Homayra Rafat, another reluctant soldier, Hamid, has been sent to the front. His family is worried because in the months since there’s been no word from him and no news about him. Then his fiancé, Âycha, and her sister come across Hamid’s blood-stained diary, which describes his fears, desires and frank observations over what we presume are his last days alive. The trauma depicted in these pages is relentless and often shocking. The characters we meet live tentatively, moment by moment, awaiting the next calamity, the next grievous loss. Nowhere is safe. Wherever they reside—city, town or village—there is always some lethal danger or destructive force waiting, just beyond the next hill or around the next corner, to obliterate them and those they love. For Western readers, this is an alien world, one that seems conjured by a febrile imagination. But the tragedy is that this is the reality for millions of innocent people caught in the crossfire. For many, it comes down to a choice between a life of crushing subjugation or the humiliation and helplessness that comes with refugee status, and the years-long ordeal of waiting for some other country to take you in. Under a Kabul Sky: Short Fiction by Afghan Women provides a vivid and terrifying glimpse into this reality, one that readers are not likely to forget anytime soon.

[Sol Canny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough read. War, even in fiction, is crushing. In fact, I am actually not sure how much of this book was fiction.

This was a wonderfully edited anthology: well written pieces, spanning a range of styles, grammatical voices, and POVs. While some stories are clearly grounded in reality; others float in the supernatural, the symbolic, and the stream of consciousness.

Importantly, these stories were written by Afghani women, about themselves, in the shadow of war and oppression. A collection not “written” about them and not curated for social voyeurism, but for an affecting participatory and co-immersive experience. Overall, nightmarish.

[Ellen]

Afghanistan