Sunlight & Fire

Introduction to the poetry 

At Amplify Afghan Women, we are constantly looking for ways to allow the women that we work with to best express themselves, feel empowered and advocate for their needs. Through the almost five years of working with these women, we have learnt that poetry is the perfect vehicle for this (read more about this in the section below). 

Hence, when we met Aryana, an Afghan-Australian woman doing her PhD at the Australian National University about Afghan women’s resistance and resilience, and learnt that she was planning to use poetry in her research, an idea began to bloom. 

From March to April 2025, we ran a poetry competition. We had 60 registrations for the competition and we provided free, online classes on writing poetry to help facilitate this process. In the end we received 28 poems which you can read in this publication. 

We note that any images added to the poems are the images provided by the poets and requested to be featured alongside their words. Coloured versions of all the images can be found on the final page of the publication.

If you have any questions, please email amplifyafghanwomen@gmail.com

Poetry Authors 

Madina F, Armaghan E, Hadia N, Nahid K, Setayesh K, Nahid R, Wadia F, Mozhgan H, Samreen A, Nelofer R, Nazila S, Arezo G, Shahir B, Marwa M, Fatema D, Zainab H, Manizha S, Samira S, Beheshta A, Naz R, Fatima S, Marwa H, Samira A, Nilab H and Hangama O.

Lead editors

Aryana M, Isabelle Z

Editors/Poetry Markers 

Hannah O, Talia P,  Phoebe C,  Nidula G, Eden R