‘I want readers to see our women rise to their full height’: Afghan novelist Nadia Hashmi

Nadia Hashimi is an Afghan-American paediatrician and novelist who writes for adults and young readers. Her fiction connects Afghan lives across generations and continents. It explores forced migration, conflict, poverty, misogyny, colonialism, and addiction.

City of Widows centres on an Afghan woman with secrets, a soldier in an elite military unit, and the soldier’s musically gifted daughter. Their lives meet at a turning point in Afghanistan’s history. The novel grew from Hashimi’s interest in Afghan women who served in the Female Tactical Platoon and faced Taliban retribution.

The book also introduces shopkeepers, journalists, teachers, café owners, newlyweds, musicians, and fellow soldiers. Hashimi wants them shown as complex human beings, not only as victims or symbols. Through their grief and anger, readers see what many women lost when the Taliban returned to power.

Portraying Afghan women at their “full height” means treating them as whole human beings. They can be ambitious, frightened, angry, joyful, vulnerable, inconsistent, or imperfect. This matters because Afghan women have often been reduced to symbols of misogyny or oppression rather than recognised as individuals with freedom and complex inner lives.

Hashimi builds a wide group of characters. They include a soldier, shopkeepers, journalists, teachers, a café owner, a newlywed, and a musician. Some, such as Marjan, have extraordinary jobs. Their different experiences show that Afghan womanhood cannot be represented by one story or one stereotype.

The approach also rejects the idea that resilience solves everything. Hashimi says trauma leaves marks in people’s bodies and psyches. The Taliban’s restrictions make this fuller portrayal urgent, because women are being erased from public view while their grief, anger, and desire for joy remain real.

In August 2021, the United States was preparing its final withdrawal while the Taliban advanced toward Kabul. People watched harrowing scenes on their phones, including the bombing of the airport. Afghans and supporters scrambled to place vulnerable people’s names and demographic information on evacuation spreadsheets sent to the US State Department.

The return to power placed women and girls at greater risk because the Taliban imposed restrictions and extreme dress codes. The source specifically describes the constant denial of education to women and girls and says women are being systematically erased from public view. These measures threaten education, freedom, work, and public participation.

Hashimi’s novel focuses on what women lost after the Taliban returned. Her work with evacuated Afghans also exposed stories of people injured or traumatised during the airport chaos. The article presents 2021 as a turning point whose effects continue to shape Afghan women and children.

Female Tactical Platoons were military units in which Afghan women trained and served on missions to hunt down insurgents. Their existence challenged expectations about women’s roles during Afghanistan’s conflict. Hashimi became interested in them after hearing about their courage and distinctive presence during training and operations.

One woman reportedly explained why she arrived with her hair and makeup done: “If I die tonight, I die pretty.” This detail shows both the danger surrounding the women and their determination to retain personal identity. Their service made them prime targets for Taliban retribution, especially because they had worked against insurgents.

After the Taliban returned, these women faced particular danger. Hashimi used their experiences to shape City of Widows and created a character who might volunteer for such a mission. Through that character, readers encounter fellow soldiers and the wider community affected by their loss and fear.

The article presents Taliban restrictions as a system that removes women and girls from public life. It specifically mentions the constant denial of education and extreme dress codes. It also says women are being systematically erased from public view. These restrictions matter because education, visibility, work, movement, and community participation help people shape their own lives.

The consequences appear through women’s grief and outrage. Hashimi writes about what women lost when the Taliban returned. Her characters include journalists, teachers, shopkeepers, musicians, and soldiers, so the restrictions threaten many different forms of work and expression. The article does not provide a separate list of movement rules or employment figures.

The wider effect is psychological as well as social. Women are not merely resilient symbols; they carry trauma in their bodies and psyches. By centring their individual stories, Hashimi shows why denying education and public presence damages families, opportunities, identity, and future generations.

Hashimi’s writing has travelled far beyond its Afghan-American origins. Her books have been translated into as many as 17 languages. This is a striking measure of reach because it means readers in many language communities can encounter her fictional accounts of Afghan lives.

The translations matter because Hashimi writes about subjects with global importance, including forced migration, conflict, poverty, misogyny, colonialism, and addiction. Her characters are not limited to a single political image of Afghanistan. They include mothers, soldiers, journalists, teachers, musicians, shopkeepers, and newlyweds.

This international audience may help broaden how Afghanistan is understood. Hashimi says fiction has changed perceptions by moving away from Afghanistan’s representation in Western media. Translated novels can carry Afghan women’s grief, humour, complexity, and resilience to readers who might otherwise see only war or oppression.

Misogyny means prejudice, hostility, or contempt toward women and girls. It can appear in personal attitudes, but it becomes more powerful when unequal treatment is built into everyday structures. The result is not only individual harm; it can shape education, safety, work, family authority, and public participation.

In families, misogyny may favour sons or limit women’s decisions. Institutions can reproduce it through unequal opportunities or exclusion. Laws can restrict women’s rights, while political systems can enforce rules that silence women or remove them from public life. Repeated practices make discrimination seem normal, even when they deny women freedom and dignity.

The article connects misogyny to the oppression of Afghan women and to Taliban restrictions. Hashimi challenges that pattern by showing women as individuals rather than symbols. Her characters have jobs, relationships, talents, anger, fear, and joy. That fuller representation makes structural discrimination visible without reducing women to victims.