Love, poetry and war: the Afghan women risking all for verse

Founder of Afghanistan’s largest women’s literary society will be speaking at International Poetry Festival in London this year

The founder of Afghanistan’s largest women’s literary society, whose female members regularly put their lives at risk to write poetry documenting sex, rage, war and heartbreak, will be among those speaking at the International Poetry Festival at London’s Southbank Centre this summer.

Kabul-based Mirman Baheer is a pioneering female literary group which enables women to share landays, short two-line poems, traditionally only performed orally, which have long been used by Afghan women as a secretive form of rebellion.