Sheeshaka

is a collective of seven Afghan American women working across lyric essay, fiction, poetry, and visual art. Sheeshaka is the Farsi word for “witches.” Our work emerges from varied professional, geographical, and generational contexts, yet is bound by shared histories of migration, linguistic fracture, and survival. Through collective writing, we create counter-narratives that dismantle the disaster narrative mapped onto Afghan lives.The members of this group include: Hawa Amin-Arsala, Elina Ansary, Seelai Karzai, Alexandra Millatmal, Leila Christine Nadir, Gazelle Samizay, and Samera Yousuf.

Our collective piece, “bey-zubaan; without a tongue”, calls upon the transliterated, Romanized versions of our languages that have shaped our psyches. The piece features Farsi (Afghan dialect of Persian) and Pashto (Pakhto). At a time when Afghan women’s voices are threatened with silence, rupture, and disappearance, we call on the collective power of our languages to disparage, name, shift, uplift, and build a future where we don’t have to live in a constant state of emergency; a future where we can use our voices to proclaim our power and joy.

@gsamizay @seelaikarzai @realitystreaming @halfghaninne @e.m.ansary @of.a.mind