It is an honour to publish Muzhgan Saghar in this first issue of The Aftershock Review. Born in Kabul in 1977, Muzhgan fled Taliban rule in 2000 and has since made her home in Germany, where she works as a teacher. Her poetry carries the urgency of survival, the ache of exile, and the undimmed force of a voice that refuses to be silenced.

This poem arrives like a flare. It speaks from the fractured edge of history, where language becomes both wound and witness. In her lines, we hear what it means to have lived through the unthinkable, and to keep speaking anyway. There is resistance here, and grace, and a kind of clarity forged only in aftermath.

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About the author:

Muzhgan Saghar, born in Kabul in 1977, fled Taliban rule in 2000 and now lives in Germany, where she has worked as a teacher since 2010. Her poetry collections include The Colorless Apple (2014), The Sun Rains (2020), The Restless Ocean (2020), and Songs of Freedom (2023). She’s been featured by the House of Poetry Berlin and served on the Zhaleh Esfahani Festival jury.

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