In 1985, a ‘legal lynching’ led to Anthony Ray Hinton being wrongfully convicted of two murders and spending nearly 30 years on death row. While there, he watched 54 fellow inmates walk past his cell to their deaths in the electric chair, or by lethal injection.
As the 10-year anniversary of Hinton’s release approaches, he explains why he dedicates his time to preventing others experiencing the same fate. “Even on the most difficult days, we found a reason, and a ‘why’, to laugh,” he says during the revealing interview.
Image: Rob Liggins
When Kabul fell to the Taliban three and a half years ago, women across the Afghan capital began a process of self-erasure. For women writers, whose very words put them in danger, it was particularly harsh. But a UK-based programme for marginalised writers has helped keep their words alive.
Marie (not her real name) tells Positive News of the day she learned of the Taliban’s house-to-house search: “We spent the day putting all our family’s books and papers in a bucket for my father to set fire to,” she said. “As each sheet was burning, I felt as if a part of me was burning. For my survival, I have to destroy with my own hands the things that I value the most.”
She is among the women who have been working with Untold Narratives, a UK-based development programme for marginalised writers. Together, they have been compiling an anthology of their stories. This issue, Marie speaks to us from her new home in Germany, describing the pain wrought by the Taliban – and her hopes for the future. “We have a proverb: ‘At the end of every night, there is a morning’, she says. “At the end of every darkness, there is sunshine’. And meanwhile, we are writing.”
Illustration: Nathalie Lees
