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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 explicates the strategies of legitimization through spatial proximization. Although, there is a spike of interest in war poetry in recent years, proximization and legitimization aspects of war poetry still need to be explored. Thus, it is important to investigate war poetry from such perspectives because "poetry occupies a critical place in the war resistance literary tradition" (Metres (2007, p. 5). In this article, we grapple with the ways in which legitimization strategies are operated at the level of spatial proximization. Cap argues that (2013), "spatial proximization always forces the vision of a physically destructive character of the ODCs' impact" (p.74). This article draws attention to rhetorical interplay between legitimization strategies and spatial proximization: one leads to the other. War poetry of Afghanistan uses spatial proximization as an instrument for legitimization purposes. In order to critically analyze the poetics of war, we have adopted Cap's (2012) model of proximization which contains spatial, temporal and axiological proximization. However, we have utilized only spatial proximization aspect of the model because it suits with my study. Our findings show that legitimization strategies are manifested in war poetry of Afghanistan for achieving certain political goals. This study is important because it provides critical insights to the readers concerning the rhetorical and political nature of war poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myth is an element of human culture that narrates a true story with an unusual nature. It discusses the miraculous action in the indeterminate time of beginning, as superhuman experiences and as a mental imaginative process with the help of works of art. It is recreated and continues to live with the help of this cultural element. Artistic-literary works become broad, deep, and lasting and acquire a global dimension and immortality. Therefore, mythological elements in different periods of Persian poetry have always been recreated with ups and downs. No period sans theme and image creation in the mythological literature and the dynamic spirit of myth has always flowed in the body of Persian poetry. Poets have used this cultural element with different approaches and have recreated it. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical method, investigates the reproduction of mythological-epic themes and narratives in the contemporary poetry of Afghanistan (from the Constitution to 1380 AD). The results of the present research show that the reproduction of mythological elements in contemporary Afghan poetry is not a pure imitation but a purposeful creation that contemporary poets, using their literary talents most artistically, relate mythological narratives and characters with events and personalities. They have adapted in their times, by linking the present and the past. They have presented their political thoughts and human emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to drugs. Bhutan has restricted smoking through Tobacco Control Act of 2010 which has declared five-year prison sentence for carrying cigarettes that are not declared to customs. The Dutch government is planning to put cannabis in the category of cocaine containing more than 15 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In England, sales of cigarettes through vending machines is prohibited.

In this special issue, not only is the human-environment relationship addressed with a few types of environmental adaptations in rural and urban contexts, including governmental measures and disaster situations, but also the process of culture making is explored through the use of vocabularies in forming mind sets. In this way, a wide spectrum of ideas and situations is portrayed, and the role of culture in making these processes meaningful is shown. The articles in this issue concern Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and they also consider migration. While environmental problems are partial causes for migration, yet symbolic reference to parts of that same environment can symbolise the lost land. The role of poetic language is seen here, while poetry itself becomes a means of better adaptation for a migrant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our examination of the representations of exile in Afghan popular culture, we focus in particular on popular poetry and song lyrics in Farsi, one of the national languages of Afghanistan. This article concentrates on the voices of exiles, their self-representation and their descriptions of life far from their homeland. We argue that, in addition to offering catharsis and expressing collective suffering, the verses are also used to urge return and, more recently, to voice complaints to and about host societies, as well as to critique the Afghan government for its failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the subject of the use of oral and popular Pashto literature as sources of historical and social narratives. It discusses Afghan poetry, Tazkira historiography, and what the author calls the trope of malangi to investigate folk and popular evidence in history writing. The article discusses poetry as a source of knowledge concerning social inequality and power in rural Afghanistan during the mid-20th century, talib poets, and the work of poet Malang Jan.

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]