Hair on Fire: Afghan Women Poets

Authors: Nadia Anjuman, Hajar Hussaini, Mahbouba Ibrahimi, Mariam Meetra, & Karima Shabrang

Translators: Diana Arterian, Samantha Cosentino, Marina Omar, Fatemeh Shams, & Maral Taheri

Publisher: Two Lines Press (2025)

Five female Afghan poets wield language to combat the loneliness, absurdity, and claustrophobia of life in a war-torn country and its diaspora.

There are long hypnotic beards tangled with mass extinctions; hateful men burning grapevines; black blindfolds; jinn in chadors; and condoms advertised every eight minutes on TV. Interspersing these are tender moments: one poet describes brushing her daughter’s hair, while another imagines a tree growing at the center of a room, undisturbed by the bombs outside. In the wake of the Taliban’s escalating war on Afghan women’s rights, Hair on Fire is a blazing tribute to a group of exceptional poetesses and a reminder of what we lose when voices are silenced.