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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

READING ANNE FRANK’S DIARY IN FARSI

by Elane Gutterman


About a dozen teen girls in a secret book club in Afghanistan are reading—and finding comfort in—Anne Frank's diary. Arzou, one of participants, said it was the first time they had read the firsthand account of a teenage girl living through extreme hardship. "I think Anne Frank is like, as a friend for me," she said. Photo: Diaa Hadid. —NPR, September 11, 2022.


I don’t want to live in vain like most people
 
In a basement at the edge of Kabul, at a secret
      book club,
a dozen teenage girls defy the Taliban,
feed their curiosity, exercise their minds,
connect to a Jewish girl from a distant time and
      place.
 
I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people
 
In translated books, the girls find themes to tunnel
      through darkness. 
Volunteer leaders steer the conversations, probe
      with questions. 
Girls like Arzou discover a kinship with Kitty—
      Anne’s diary, relate 
to bickering with mom, crush on Peter, resolve not
      to lose hope.
 
Even those I’ve never met
 
What brave teens, they’ve survived suicide
      bombings, 
losses, terrors, hardships of their Hazara minority.
In the past year, they’ve cried and tried to 
      circumvent 
the Taliban’s intent to cover, confine, undermine
      women.
 
I want to go on living even after my death
 
Masouma finds comfort in Anne’s diary, despite
      her grasp
of Anne’s horrific end. These teenage girls of
      Afghanistan 
now all dream of writing a book. Zahra says,
      “Nobody 
knows how long I will live, or when I will die.” 


Editor's Note: The italicized lines are quotations from Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl.


Elane Gutterman is a trustee and the literary chair at the West Windsor Arts Center. Her poems invoking social justice have appeared in prior issues of The New Verse News. Her first book of poetry, Tides of Expectation (Kelsay Books), was published earlier this year. She dedicates this poem to the brave girls in the secret book club in Kabul and to one remarkable Afghani girl who arrived in Santa Fe, NM this week to begin tenth grade studies there.