The source of the following information is from an article by Eliza Griswold, published in the NY Times, April 27, 2012.  Zarmina lived in Gereshk, less than 400 miles from Kabul, Afghanistan. She was engaged, since childhood, to her first cousin whom she’d grown to love. He could not, however, afford her bride price.   Following Pastun tradition, Zarmina’s life was strictly limited, her marriage to her cousin denied, and her freedom of expression forbidden. She found outlet by secretly writing a traditional, two-line type of poem called a landai / landay. Her only connection with the outside world was via radio.  One day she heard of Mirman Baheer, and a woman’s literary group in Kabul, Via Radio Azadi (Liberty). Soon she became a regular caller.  When this activity was discovered by her family, her brothers beat her, and two weeks later she set herself on fire.

“Zarmina described ‘the dark cage of the village.’  Her work was impressive … not only for its distinctive language but also for its courage to question God’s will. ‘That’s what our poems had in common,’ [said a representative of Mirman Baheer]. ‘We complained to God about the state of our lives.  Zarmina’s poems posed questions: ‘Why am I not in a world where people can feel what I’m feeling and hear my voice?’ She asked, ‘If God cares about beauty, why aren’t we allowed to care?’ She asked:  ‘In Islam, God loved the prophet Muhammad. I’m in a society where love is a crime. If we are Muslims, why are we enemies of love?’”  

“… Pashtun poetry has long been a form of rebellion for Afghan women, belying the notion that they are submissive or defeated. Landai means “short, poisonous snake” in Pashto … a language spoken on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The word also refers to two-line folk poems that can be just as lethal…”

“A poem is a sword,” Saheera Sharif, Mirman Baheer’s founder, said. Sharif is not a poet but a member of Parliament from the province of Khost. Literature, she says, is a more effective battle for women’s rights than shouting at political rallies. This is a different kind of struggle.”