Set during the rule of the Taliban, Qaderi's stories are narrated by a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to watch men in peace, a woman who kills her husband, another who is angry about her pregnancy, and so on. UC Berkeley's Wali Ahmadi has attended gatherings that devoted as much as a panel discussion to Afghan writers. But the international conference held in Royce Hall on Jan. 14 was the first day-long affair of its kind, according to participants. It came during the ninth year of a U.S.-led occupation of the country, and as the Obama administration is sending additional soldiers there.
The conference, "Afghanistan in Ink: Literatures of Nation, War, and Exile," focused on works written or recorded in the tumult of the past three decades. Although Afghan literature hails from much older Persian and Pashto traditions, this contemporary emphasis did not really narrow the day's discussion. Six presenters looked at proverbs and aphorisms, poetry, novels, short stories, and, in Ahmadi's case, a four-volume philosophical allegory in prose. These works were composed in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Denmark and the United States, in Persian, English and French. Pashto language scholars invited to the event were not able to attend.
Arbabzadah commented on some paradoxes of what is "almost a homeless literature" produced largely in exile. From Tehran, a young émigré, Homira Qaderi, writes stories about Herat province for her mostly non-Afghan audience, but in the province's variant of Dari, as Persian dialects are known collectively in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Khaled Hosseini, who lives in northern California, is more famous abroad than in Afghanistan, said Arbabzadah, and the film adaptation of his first novel, "The Kite Runner," was banned by the Kabul government in 2008 over its depictions of rape and ethnic conflict.
Original article can be found HERE.
The conference, "Afghanistan in Ink: Literatures of Nation, War, and Exile," focused on works written or recorded in the tumult of the past three decades. Although Afghan literature hails from much older Persian and Pashto traditions, this contemporary emphasis did not really narrow the day's discussion. Six presenters looked at proverbs and aphorisms, poetry, novels, short stories, and, in Ahmadi's case, a four-volume philosophical allegory in prose. These works were composed in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Denmark and the United States, in Persian, English and French. Pashto language scholars invited to the event were not able to attend.
Arbabzadah commented on some paradoxes of what is "almost a homeless literature" produced largely in exile. From Tehran, a young émigré, Homira Qaderi, writes stories about Herat province for her mostly non-Afghan audience, but in the province's variant of Dari, as Persian dialects are known collectively in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Khaled Hosseini, who lives in northern California, is more famous abroad than in Afghanistan, said Arbabzadah, and the film adaptation of his first novel, "The Kite Runner," was banned by the Kabul government in 2008 over its depictions of rape and ethnic conflict.
Original article can be found HERE.
