Poetry In Conflict Talks Pass

Take a fresh look at places that are constantly in the news because of conflict.

The insights of their keenest observers and sharpest wordsmiths challenge how these countries and regions are depicted in the media. This afternoon of three talks tells the stories of poets and poetry from Afghanistan to Pakistan via Iraq.

Free of the Taliban

'How could a poet who has very soft feelings for his land and people become a tool to spread terror?' (Saleem Khan)

For more than five centuries, poets in remote north-western Pakistan recited verses about the area's mountainous scenery, their tribal culture and love.

This tradition changed as Islamist militants tightened their hold on Pakistan's tribal regions after the September 11 attacks. The Taliban and their allies targeted the poets, warning them not to write poetry that referred to women or serenity and instead ordering them to compose jihadist messages of war, brutality and conformity.

Military attacks on the Islamists have displaced more than 700,000 Pakistanis from the North Waziristan region, including around fifty poets. Amid the chaos of refugee life, they are restoring tradition to their verses.

Hear from three of the poets Saleem Khan, Zahid Ullah and Dilawar Khan plus the journalist, Aamir Iqbal, who first bought their story to the attention of the world.

Modern War Poetry

Poetry has the ability to take the statistics of war and make them personal.

Voices from outside the US and UK describe their different experiences of conflict, from the mother who has lost her children to female soldiers and those that they are fighting against. Discover the war poets of today who are recording their experiences for future generations.

'Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Dust off the graves
And dig fresh ones –'
(Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee, Baghdad, 2003, translated by Sadek Mohammed)

Why Afghan Women Risk Their Lives to Write Poetry

'I call. You're stone.
One day you'll look and find I'm gone.'

In Afghanistan, brave women gather in secret to recite and write landays – potent poems of war, grief, separation and love.

This talk brings together Afghan poets including Sahira Sharif, the founder of the Mirman Baheer Society in Kabul with journalist, poet and editor Eliza Griswold, who shared their work and story in The New York Times.

'A poem is a sword. It's our form of resistance.' (Sahira Sharif)

This performance contains sensitive content including descriptions and imagery of violence, war and conflict.

For ages 16+.