I don’t feel like I can find the right words to write about women in Afghanistan. How could I write about a life reality that I have never remotely experienced, that differs so deeply from my own? It is unfathomable what is happening there: how women are being systematically excluded from public life, how they are being denied any freedom and independence, and how their voice...

I rarely choose a book by its cover, but I must admit that I probably wouldn’t have spotted Thin places if it wasn’t for the fragile, shimmering wing on the front. And I owe a big thanks to that cover, since that way I discovered a new favourite book – so let me tell you a bit about it. Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh is primarily a memoir. She was born in 1983 in Derry i...

My first day with the Sakinah Group at Al-Meezan House was a blur of joyful chaos. Papers scattered, pens misplaced, and one elusive star and moon stencil passed from hand to hand as the women prepared their Eid cards. But within weeks, that chaos softened into something beautiful. I began to see not just activity, but a communal connection; women from different walks of life...

Queer expressions of love through letters dates back as far as the 2nd century. Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, queer people expressed their love through artistic language and elaborate metaphors. This was often to avoid public persecution. Shakespeare’s sonnets, for example, have often been interpreted as holding homoerotic desire, though there is still some deba...

Pauline beautifully distills the essence of two fascinating Story Cafes… Story Cafe on 12 February: Celebrating LGBT+ culture and struggle Wendy welcomed everyone and explained that this was LGBT+ History Month and we would be marking it with readings from a novel about the early life of Anne Lister and, as usual, finishing with some poetry, but first she read from A Feminist...