LONDON - Afghan poet Parwana Fayyaz has won a prestigious British prize for poetry called Forward.
Parwana won the £10,000 prize for best single poem for Forty Names, which depicts the experience of 40 women who jump off of a cliff in order to preserve their “honour”.
Born in Kabul and raised in Pakistan, Parwana began to write poetry in 2010, when she learned English as a second language.
Shahidha Bari, the chair of the judges, called Forty Names “a poem that feels close to a prayer, and yet is shocking and vital.”
“It startled us with its simple, invocatory power, and reminded us of the profound act of witness that poetry can be.”
Parwana graduated with a BA and an MA in CompLit, Creative Writing and Religious Studies from Stanford University, US.
She is currently working towards a PhD on the medieval Persian poet Jami at Trinity College, Cambridge, UK. (1TV News)