By Lamplight Illuminates the Voices of Young Afghan Women

Welcome to Living Wisdom School's Monthly Literary and Visual Arts Publication

Dear Living Wisdom Community,

I am so grateful to announce the launch of By Lamplight, a monthly Substack newsletter created to share the literary and visual arts of the young women in our Living Wisdom Afghanistan program.

This vision was seeded by two women whose hearts have been touched deeply by this work: Alexandra Carelli, an artist, writer, and transpersonal scholar; and Ashima Cardona, a devoted member of Living Wisdom School and the Ananda Community for many years. Alexandra and Ashima will serve as editors of By Lamplight, alongside Samreen Makfhi, one of our graduates, a Living Wisdom teacher, and a prolific writer and poet.

In Afghanistan today, girls and young women have been formally denied access to education. Since 2021, when the Taliban returned to power, millions have found the doors to schools and universities closed to them—along with so many of the futures they once imagined.

Many of these students are part of the Living Wisdom International High School, a free, accredited online program created in partnership with Victory Afghanistan to serve young women who have been denied access to education in their own country. Their classrooms stretch across time zones. Their teachers meet them wherever they are. Their commitment carries them forward.

This publication exists to honor their voices. Through By Lamplight, we will share the words and inner worlds of the inspiring young women we have the privilege of serving.

Thank you to our community for your support along this journey. We look forward to sharing this next chapter with you.

In gratitude,
Peter Skillman & Living Wisdom School

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A Note From the Editors

Words have incredible power.

They can be weapons that wield destruction, or they can be instruments of truth, creativity, and inspiration. The words we speak carry the vibration of our very being—sending our unique signature into the world.

For me, words have been all of these things. Words have sent me to the most painful places in my own heart, and it is words that gave me the hope to climb back out from the bottom of the well. As a writer and scholar, words have been the primary medium through which I express my heart and soul. It is hard to imagine who I would be without this gift.

When I first learned that women in Afghanistan are not allowed to write, speak, or share their written works under Taliban rule, I felt a deep pain and sense of injustice pierce my heart. How could the beautiful words of these women be stifled? How could anyone stop the creative act of giving form to our most complex feelings through poetry, songs, and stories?

As I began learning more, I discovered that Afghan women have a long and powerful literary lineage of their own. In the ancient tradition of Landai—two-line Pashtun folk poems often composed and shared orally by women—poetry has long served as a form of resistance, intimacy, and expression. These often anonymous poems speak of war, love, longing, and the realities women have endured throughout history.

I believe that writing, speaking, and sharing our hearts through words is our birthright as human beings. I do not believe that anyone who longs to write should be denied the right to share their unique vibration in this way.

And so, with painful irony, it is words that have been used to create this repression. Yet it will also be words that help undo it—and create the wings these women need to find freedom again.

It is from this place, this belief in the liberating power of the written word, that we have been inspired to create By Lamplight. By Lamplight exists to share the literature and art of young Afghan women through monthly, anonymous publications on Substack.

This platform also allows us to receive monthly donations through subscriptions. All proceeds will go directly toward supporting these young women and the nonprofit work of Living Wisdom School.

Behind closed doors, in quiet rooms in Kabul and Kandahar, young women hide in corners with their books. They read, they write, they study—sometimes by lamplight, sometimes in whispers, often in ways that require both creativity and courage. Each day, they make a quiet, steady choice to continue.

This publication exists to honor their voices. These are the inner worlds of remarkable young women, shared in their own words.

This is only the first of many posts we hope to bring you. Our commitment to uplifting these students’ and teachers’ voices in the wider world is unwavering.

The piece that follows was written by one of our editors and a brilliant writer, Samreen Makfhi. It is called Mornings In My Country.

We invite you to read it slowly, and meet her there.

In gratitude,

Alexandra & Ashima

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Note: This poem was written by Samreen on the night of February 27th, 2026—when the first bombs fell on Kabul from Pakistan.

Mornings In My Country

People wake to the chirping of birds,

Feel the warm rays of the sun on their faces.

In Afghanistan, though,

You wake in the middle of the night

To the sound of a bomb dropped on your city,

Shaking the walls of your small mud house.

You wake to the shattered glass in your windows,  

Ambulance sirens and deafening gunshots echo in the air.

You wonder if there will ever be a tomorrow.

My youngest siblings clutch my arm.

“Sister, what’s going on?”

Faking a smile, I say,

“Afghanistan won the cricket match.

This is just a celebration.”

They ask, “But why does your face lose color

Every time there is an orange bloom in the sky?”

How can I explain

When your country becomes a playground for politics…

When men grow thirsty to spill each other’s blood, 

When your sky is no longer blue, only burning, 

I must turn terror into fairy tales, 

the shrapnel of my voice into a lullaby.

To protect your sleep.

— Samreen Makhfi

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