SmokeLong Quarterly

I do not know how I chose those words, but I understand that when there is pain, words come from it, and are inadvertently imprinted in the mind. I did not take the time to choose any of them.

I wish we had wings to fly to a place where there is no law about how to live, where we all could choose our own lifestyle. With freedom we understand the true meaning of why we came to this world. If we could define freedom in our daily lives, we may not encounter the challenges of life.

When human beings are allowed to fly without any restrictions, they experience vitality with all their being. If there is no fear of breaking wings, growth will excel. But contrary to our beautiful idea, the wings are cut off from everyone, and they bury a thousand hopes. The right to life is taken away from them. The sound of their loud language is covered with dust. Their great goals are recorded in the color of their blood on the backs of the booklets of the bitter story of their lives.

Why do many people have their wings cut off, and not allowed to grow? Only a few have the right to fly, to live with hope and have real joy.

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Smoke & Mirrors with Nazia Baqizada
Interviewed by Jemimah Wei

Can you tell us about your own relationship to writing, both in your home language and in English?

My relationship with writing is a relationship of friends; pen and paper have always been my companion. Although I write little, I feel good when I write.

What is the first thing you remember feeling really strongly that you wanted to write, and why?

Writing at any time in any language gives a feeling of emptiness, but the mother tongue in writing from the bottom of the heart conveys its letters to the reader because every letter is from the heart.

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I am Nazia Baqizada, 18 year old, from Afghanistan, and I have lived in Indonesia since 2016.