It is almost 2019 and we wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for supporting our work in the past year. Here’s some of what we’ve been able to accomplish together this year.
We’ve published more than 200 pieces of literature by women and our allies in Afghanistan and in the diaspora. We translated 55 of those pieces to English and published them on freewomenwriters.org. We had 49 new contributors in 2018, raising the number of our writers to 179.
We collaborated with global organizations and built bridges. Among our partners this year were Stop Street Harassment, UNUM Magazine, Girls’ Globe, The Turban Times, Women You Should Know, and Glocal Khabar. These organizations republished our work and amplified our voices. We’re immensely grateful to them.
We were able to take our book You Are Not Alone, a guide for women facing abuse in Afghanistan, to six provinces: Kabul, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, Daikundi, Herat, and Khost. Read more about how well our book did here.
We painted murals in defense of every girl’s right to education in Balkh.
We supported Soraya’s school. Soraya is a 25 year old woman who started her own school to serve the women who have been deprived of literacy in her community. Through our partnership, she is now able to keep her classroom warm, has a variety of books to use in her lessons, and even clothes for the children of her students. Read more about our partnership here.
We held events in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, DC, and Virginia and gathered women and young people to discuss the urgent issues facing the women of Afghanistan.
We also participated in a number of global and national conferences, including the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference in D.C., South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Conference in Nepal, and Nos Tantas Outras in Brazil. At these conferences we advocated for equal access to justice and making the struggle against gendered violence a global and political priority.
We won the Girl Rising Creative Challenge!
We reached tens of thousands of people online and many others through the distribution of our books and events around Afghanistan.
We were featured by Sparknews on Impact Journalism Day and through them our work was covered by more than two dozen publications in Afghanistan and around the world.
And last but by no means least, our first Daughters of Rabia Scholar, Frozan Sarwary graduated with a Bachelors in Law from Edraak Institute of Higher Education in Kabul, Afghanistan. Congratulations, Frozan! Keep an eye on our blog to learn more about her journey in an upcoming piece.
Thank you so much for supporting Free Women Writers in 2018. We cannot wait for another year of solidarity and struggle against patriarchy.