“Making love to an old man is like // Making love to a limp cornstalk blackened by fungus.”

This landai, or two-line poem, is from Afghanistan, written by a woman forced to marry an old man when she was 15. 

Journalists Eliza Griswold and Seamus Murphy chronicled women’s use of poetry in Afghanistan. Read and see their work and more poems here.

It’s National Poetry Month. Send us your poems about the topics we cover or any haikus or poetry you find in our reporting, and we’ll post our favorites on our site. Email them to pulitzercenter (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Photo: A landai in the notebook of a new young poet. Image by Seamus Murphy. Afghanistan, 2012.

“Remember This”

You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:
One day you will be sick.

- a poem addressed to the Taliban from a 15-year-old Pashtun woman

Journalists Eliza Griswold and Seamus Murphy chronicled women’s use of poetry in dealing with everyday life in Afghanistan. Read their reporting and more poems here.

It’s National Poetry Month. Send us your poems about the topics we cover and we’ll post our favorites on our site — email pulitzercenter (at) gmail (dot) com.

Afghanistan’s Water Crisis Most of Afghanistan’s water flows out of the country unused, despite farmers struggles to keep crops watered. Only a small fraction of foreign aid money has gone to water infrastructure projects, while the few projects that have actually been started have been mired in conflict. Read grantee Mujib Mashal’s stories on this under-reported crisis here. We’re featuring our water-related reporting for World Water Day.
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Afghanistan’s Water Crisis

Most of Afghanistan’s water flows out of the country unused, despite farmers struggles to keep crops watered. Only a small fraction of foreign aid money has gone to water infrastructure projects, while the few projects that have actually been started have been mired in conflict. Read grantee Mujib Mashal’s stories on this under-reported crisis here.

We’re featuring our water-related reporting for World Water Day.

A Deadly Struggle for Water

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“With a vast, empty desert as a backdrop, the militants recorded the execution of Khan Wali on video. As someone held a camera, the others encircled the condemned man to read out his sentence. “This is not brutality — this is justice,” declared one of the executioners, who sported a black turban and a shaggy beard. “I swear to God that killing him with an 82-mm mortar is not enough. But the rest of our mujahedin would not agree on my recommendation — to kill him in a way that all can take part in the act.”

And so it was decided to shoot Khan Wali with the 82-mm mortar. They forced him to kneel 36 m away from the portable cannon, a type often used in small battles in the war-torn country. A militant positioned behind the weapon then set it off; a massive thumping sound was followed by celebratory cries of Allahu akbar — God is great. “Be careful, don’t get any blood on your clothes,” said one voice as the other men, after jubilantly hugging one another, rushed to poke at Khan Wali’s flesh splattered on the ground. “I enjoyed this very much,” said one.

What was Khan Wali’s crime? He was protecting one of Afghanistan’s most important resources: water. Khan Wali led a 60-man semiofficial militia tasked with defending the Machalgho dam in eastern Paktia province. Already two years behind schedule because of security concerns, the dam would irrigate about 16,000 hectares of land and produce 800 KW of electricity once completed. The government had pledged that if Khan Wali held his ground for two months, he and his men would receive weapons and cash. But Khan Wali lasted only 20 days into the mission.”

Read the rest of grantee Mujib Mashal’s story on Afghanistan’s looming water crisis here. Image by Mujib Mashal. Afghanistan, 2012.

We’re featuring our water-related reporting all week for World Water Day.

Journalist, Eliza Griswold, introduces her coverage of the landai poetry in Afghanistan. Landai poems, which are two line poems, address various issues that affect Afghan women daily. These women use landai as an outlet from their constricted lives. However, these women have to keep their passion a secret, and often times use pen names to keep their identity hidden. 

Zarmina, an Afghan girl used the name Rahila to hide her poetry from a controlling family. Pulitzer Center grantee, Eliza Griswold, investigates Zarmina’s secret life and her involvement in Mirman Baheer, a women’s literary society based in Kabul. Read her reporting and some of the poetry of Afghanistan’s women here.

We’re highlighting our female journalists all week for International Women’s Day on March 8th. 

“Zarghoona is small but sturdy, like a brief, forceful sentence. At 29, she is an avatar of the new Afghanistan, waking at dawn to pray and cook breakfast for her family before catching a company van to the office. She comes home at night satisfied that her salary helps pay the bills, pretending not to hear her neighbors’ whispers: “Look at her. She came in the dark, very late, and her father let her go…”  Read more of Pulitzer Center grantee Vanessa Gezari’s profile of female Afghan journalist Zarghoona Salehi and see more of grantee Kathleen Flynn’s photographs here. We’re highlighting our female journalists all week for International Women’s Day on March 8th.
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“Zarghoona is small but sturdy, like a brief, forceful sentence. At 29, she is an avatar of the new Afghanistan, waking at dawn to pray and cook breakfast for her family before catching a company van to the office. She comes home at night satisfied that her salary helps pay the bills, pretending not to hear her neighbors’ whispers: “Look at her. She came in the dark, very late, and her father let her go…” 

Read more of Pulitzer Center grantee Vanessa Gezari’s profile of female Afghan journalist Zarghoona Salehi and see more of grantee Kathleen Flynn’s photographs here.

We’re highlighting our female journalists all week for International Women’s Day on March 8th.

Tensions over trans-boundary water issues with Iran and Pakistan have been a major hurdle to investments in Afghanistan’s water infrastructure. Only 5 percent of international aid has gone to the water sector. Projects like the reconstruction of the Kajaki dam are stalled despite funding due to casualties, politics and infighting. Most water flows out of Afghanistan unused. Without water infrastructure, the largely agricultural economy is struggling as the international gaze begins to shift away. The problem may only worsen: the UN says that water supply per capita may decrease 50 percent over the next decade in Afghanistan. 

Images by Pulitzer Center grantee Mujib Mashal. Afghanistan, 2012. Read his stories about conflicts over water in Afghanistan here.

Pulitzer Center grantee Mujib Mashal explains how trans-boundary water tensions with Iran and Pakistan cast a shadow on the development of Afghanistan’s mainly agricultural economy.

In his reporting project, he’s found water murder, violent threats against political officials, farmers’ reluctance to diversify from poppy production until there’s enough water, and an international reluctance to get involved. Only 5 percent of aid money flowing into Afghanistan goes to the water sector, despite clear needs for infrastructure. Read more here. 

Gifts for International Journalism

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Go on a journey with our e-books (http://bit.ly/PCebooks). Meet the people of Haiti through stories, poetry, song, video, and original music. Travel for a year through Afghanistan by donkey with Anna Badkhen. Explore the global water crisis with Dan Grossman. See what it means to be without a country through the photography of Greg Constantine and the reporting of Stephanie Hanes on some of the estimated 12 million stateless people worldwide.

Thirty percent of the $3.99 purchase price of the iBooks goes to Apple. All the rest goes to the contributing journalists and artists. The Kindle e-books also follow a similar breakdown.

Pulitzer Center eBooks pull together reporting, photography, video, interactive graphics and more, to provide an immersive narrative experience. New platforms. New income for journalists. And new hope for sustained reporting on issues that matter. We hope you’ll take a look, buy an iBook or e-book, give it an endorsement on iTunes or Amazon—and make an investment in the future of journalism.

http://bit.ly/PCebooks

Source: pulitzercenter.org