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.