Four young women sit together, waiting for the phone to ring. When the call finally comes, their friend’s voice is crackly and hard to make out, but they wait patiently for the signal to improve so they can start discussing their chosen book.
Every Thursday, the five friends come together away from the disapproving gaze of the Taliban for a reading circle. They read not for entertainment but, as they put it, to understand life and the world around them. They call their group “women with books and imagination”.
Most of the women in the group meet in person, but Parwana*, 21, lives in a different district so has to join by phone. She was still a child when the Taliban pulled girls out of education, so didn’t get to finish school. Now, she says, her entire week revolves around books.
“When they banned us from attending school, I lost all hope.
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