Khadija Haidary’s letters reach readers in China ^{CEFR B1}

Khadija Haidary’s month-long email correspondence was translated and published on a medium-sized WeChat account called “Haidary on Positive Links” in October 2024. The exchanges drew wider attention to changes in Afghan society after the Taliban recaptured Kabul in 2021.

Haidary later turned the emails into a book, “A Letter from an Afghan Woman,” describing how women lost basic rights between 2021 and 2024. Her testimony listed specific restrictions: women forced out of work, forbidden to walk alone, barred from medical training and male doctors in some cases, girls kept out of schools and public places, and journalists threatened with prison or worse.

Haidary, who had written for Zan Times, was sheltering in the countryside when Chinese journalist Weilin Hong first contacted her in September 2024. The contact helped persuade her to leave Afghanistan; by early October 2024 she and her family were settled in Pakistan. A Chinese publisher later offered a contract and a royalties advance that could support a move to Canada. The book appeared in August 2025 and sold more than 10,000 copies within months, with readers promoting it online and state media publishing reviews. Responses ranged from personal reflections to practical help, including a reader bringing a copy to Haidary in Pakistan in November 2025. In January 2026 Hong said these quiet acts spread across China like a relay.