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This paper concerns young adults who came to Sweden from Afghanistan as unaccompanied refugee minors (UMs) and their engagement with poetry and other creative activities. The aim was to explore how UMs use poetic writing and other creative activities to handle resettlement challenges. Seven young men and six young women, aged 18–24, participated in semi-structured interviews. The material was analyzed using the three components of poetry therapy, developed by Mazza. Three themes were identified: (1) Encouragement; (2) Creative expressions as a "safe place"; and (3) A sense of recognition. Through creative expressions, our participants could understand and handle the emotional difficulties and the insecurity associated with resettlement. Poetic writing was a way to convey personal experiences of injustices, a source of self-understanding, and a way to establish new social networks. We discuss and present suggestions on how poetry and other creative activities can be integrated in interventions toward UMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers issues of gender in the performance in Afghanistan of chaharbeiti, an important orally transmitted genre of sung poetry. Based on particular performances and other sources, the author discusses differences in poetic choices made by male and female singers. The article draws attention to women's preoccupation with family love and the personalisation of existing texts. Other issues include the gendering of poetic viewpoints and of the object of love, and relations between the sexes as revealed in such performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]