Inside Kabul’s Almond Garden nothing blooms, except rage

Afsana Press
Sep 5
5 min read

Updated: Sep 6

New novel by Afsana Press:

THE ALMOND GARDEN OF KABUL

Mandana Hendessi

Release date: 21 October 2025

Now available for pre-order

“As searing and unforgettable as The Shawshank Redemption.”

Dr Loretta Napoleoni, economist and award-winning author

“An important source of Afghanistan’s oral history based on gripping narratives… a great contribution to literature.”

Dr Elaheh Rostami-Povey, author and academic

Press Release

5 September 2025

A novel of silenced truths that refuse to be buried

The Almond Garden of Kabul is a harrowing and powerful work of literary fiction, tracing the perilous journey of women whose silenced truths refuse to remain buried. Set inside Afghanistan’s largest women’s prison, Badam Bagh (Almond Garden), the novel reveals a hidden world where inmates confront corruption, coercion, and violence – yet also sustain one another through humour, resilience, and quiet acts of defiance.

The story begins with Niloofar, a young woman who self-immolates after being raped and blackmailed. Her flames become a spark for two central figures: The queer protagonist of the story, Sultan, imprisoned for the frenzied murder of her trafficker husband; and Setara, a teacher and artist whose fire burns through charcoal drawings and flour-dusted hands, exposing what silence could not. Together, they begin to uncover a sex-trafficking ring operating within the prison walls, implicating the governor and his deputy, guards, political and judiciary elites – and perhaps even aid organisations.

Against the backdrop of the four almond trees within the prison yard – symbols of fragile beauty, memory, and unmarked graves – Sultan, Setara, and their allies Geisha and Sheyda must choose between silence and resistance. What begins as a struggle for survival becomes a race to reveal a scandal that powerful forces will kill to keep hidden.

Praise for The Almond Garden of Kabul:

“A shocking story of women's oppression and resilience against the ‘democratic’ background of Afghanistan. A story of female love, friendship and endurance. A must-read for everyone who wants to understand the failures of Westernisation of this country through the eyes of its primary victims: women.”

– Dr Loretta Napoleoni, author of Technocapitalism; The Power of Knitting; and The Islamist Phoenix

“Defies western stereotypes of the boundaries of gender in a patriarchal religious society.”

– Malu Halsa, Writer and author, and literary editor of The Markaz Review

“Based on the lived reality of the most oppressed Afghan women in 21st century, Hendessi powerfully raises the voice of the voiceless. Beautifully written, this novel shows women's agency – resisting, surviving and refusing to be the passive victims.”

– Dr Elaheh Rostami-Povey – Author of Afghan Women: Identity and Invasion; and Women, Work and Islamism, Ideology and Resistance in Iran

Author’s statement:

The story grew out of my time in Kabul’s women’s prison in 2010,” says Hendessi. “I first went there as a curious advocate, not a writer – to listen, to understand, to support programmes for women. But the stories I heard over endless glasses of tea, in smoke-filled, dimly-lit cells – stories of women displaced by family and communal violence, imprisoned for crimes both real and imagined – refused to leave me. In a way, I feel this novel chose me, rather than the other way around.

Writing my debut novel was a journey of discovery – one that Afsana Press supported with rare patience, care, and faith in my voice. Writing fiction was a very different process,” says Hendessi. “It allowed me to get under the skin of an experience in ways policy analysis never could. Fiction gave me the freedom to capture the silences, the glances, the hidden acts of defiance I witnessed in those cells.

This book is a tribute to women whose courage often goes unrecorded. In a world where women’s voices are routinely silenced, I wanted to create a story that insists on being heard. It’s about Afghanistan, but not only Afghanistan. It is about how women everywhere find ways to resist, to subvert, to hold onto dignity even when everything conspires against them.

I hope readers come away unsettled but also moved with a sense of how fragile freedom can be, and how fiercely it is defended when there is nothing left to lose. The women in The Almond Garden of Kabul are fictional but the truths they embody are real.

About the Author:

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.

Notes to editors:

THE ALMOND GARDEN OF KABUL is available from 21 October 2025 to order via Turnaround (ISBN: 9781068495809) and all bookshops and online retailers, or directly from Afsana Press (www.afsana-press.com). The book can be pre-ordered now.

For more information or to order an advanced reader copy, please contact:

Aleksandra Markovic

publicity@afsanapress.uk

Tel: +44 7523729533

The author can be contacted at mandana700@gmail.com or +44 7722774991

Twitter - @mandana700

Instagram - @mandanahendessi

About Afsana Press:

Afsana Press is an independent publisher producing sparkling literary works by authors whose stories have a direct relation to social, political or cultural issues in countries and communities around the world. The publisher’s mission is to get to the heart of the urgent matters of our time and times past, asking important questions about migration and refugees, the environment, gender, development and social justice. Particular attention will go to the work of authors in exile, and our stories often concern the movement of humans in an ever-shifting world.

www.afsana-press.com

Instagram - @afsana_press

Twitter - @afsana_press

Book & distribution info:

Binding: Paperback

Format: 198 x 129 mm

Extent: 208 pages

Price: £ 14.99

ISBN: 9781068495809

BIC 2.0: Modern & Contemporary Fiction (FA)

Distributor: TURNAROUND

(visit www.turnaround-uk.com)