Dispatches from Chaos

KABUL fell to Taliban control on 15 August 2021-the writers are in touch through the night that followed.

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My Dear Kabul: A Year in the Life of an Afghan Women's Writing Group published by Coronet/Hodder, 2024. Translated by Parwana Fayyaz and Dr Negeen Kargar.

My Dear Kabul is an Untold Narratives project. Untold-a development programme for emerging writers in areas of conflict and post-conflictwas founded by Lucy Hannah

All of the writers in this section are writing from the city of Kabul. This is their collective diary: in it, they watch schools and offices close, families change and freedoms disappear. They share stories of chaos, protest and flight-and of life continuing.

Maryam

I don't have any sleep. It is night-time, and Kabul has fallen fully. I cannot believe it. I want to tell everyone: they took Kabul. I want to tell my mother, my sisters, my brothers-they have taken Kabul. I want to go up to the roof and say quietly- they took Kabul. I don't know why I can't just shout it out: THEY TOOK KABUL.

Through the night and into the next morning the writers reflect on what has happened and recount the day they have just lived through.

Fakhta

Fakhta lives in a university hostel in the capital, and is close to getting her degree in Law from Kabul University. Her home is in the mountainous province of Daikundi.