About Nadia Anjuman

 

As a teenager in Herat, Afghanistan, Nadia Anjuman attended the Golden Needle School, where women would gather to discuss literature with local professors under the guise of practicing needlepoint, a pastime approved by the Taliban government. With Afghanistan’s liberation from the Taliban in 2001, Anjuman began attending Herat University and soon published a book of poetry entitled Gul-e-dodi (Dark Flower). Her readership was not limited to Afghanistan; Gul-e-dodi found readers in Iran, Pakistan, and beyond. Despite the objections of her husband and his family, she continued to write poetry and was set to publish a second volume of poetry in 2006 entitled Yek Sàbad Délhoreh (An Abundance of Worry). Before she could do so, she died from her husband's domestic violence in November 2005. Anjuman’s complete works were published in 2007 in the original Persian-Dari by the Iranian Burnt Books Foundation. Gul-e-dodi has been reprinted three times and has sold over three thousand copies.