The Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) hosted The Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWWP) last Saturday afternoon at the Temescal Branch Library in Oakland. A small, but enthusiastic group attended. The AWWP was founded in 2009 by American author and journalist, Marsha Hamilton. The project provides women writers in Afghanistan to join together in secure, online workshops and are mentored by American professional writers and educators. A curriculum for personal exploration and reflection on the themes of love and forgiveness was designed to assist groups and individuals to explore their personal relationships through writing.

The curriculum provides a rich array of weekly material from which facilitators can choose what is best suited to their groups’ goals for self and social reflection. The Afghan participants want to write and find that it helps to release their feelings regarding the extreme difficulties they’ve had in their lives.  If anyone is interested in supporting…