Almond Garden of Kabul
They called it Badam Bagh – the Almond Garden. But inside Kabul's central women's prison, nothing bloomed. Nothing except rage. When Niloofar, a teenage inmate, sets herself on fire, the authorities call it a suicide attempt. But two women - Sultan, a feared inmate who once killed her abusive husband, and Setara, a teacher and gifted artist imprisoned for a crime she did not commit - begin to suspect that the fire was not just a tragedy, but a protest. As they uncover a web of abuse and corruption, they draw in fellow inmates Sheyda and Geisha along the way. Together, they risk everything to expose a sinister secret that stretches far beyond the prison walls.
In a land where fire once symbolised truth and divine power, their silence becomes the flame that sets the system ablaze. Set against a brutal system built to erase them, The Almond Garden of Kabul is a haunting story of resistance, remembrance, and the fire women carry within them.
Mandana Hendessi (OBE) has spent over thirty years working on women’s rights and empowerment in some of the world’s most fragile places. Between 2008 and 2016, she lived and worked in Kabul, often visiting Afghanistan’s largest women’s prison – a place of dimly lit cells, whispered confidences, and bolani frying on makeshift stoves. Over countless glasses of tea, she listened to stories of injustice and defiance that would inspire The Almond Garden of Kabul. Her debut novel carries the voices of those women – raw, courageous, and unforgettable. Mandana is also the author of The Kurds: The Struggle for National Identity and Statehood (Agenda Publishing, 2024) and co-author of The Elgar Companion to Gender and Global Migration: Beyond Western Research (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023). Her article on the criminalisation of Afghan women’s sexuality, written as a prelude to The Almond Garden of Kabul, appeared in Missing Perspectives in 2023.