Tahmina Akefi

(Afghanistan, 1983) escaped her fatherland at the age of twelve and came to live in the Netherlands with her parents. She studied journalism and worked for ANP, the Dutch news agency, Omroep West, a regional channel, and NOS Journaal, the news section of Dutch public television. In 2009 Akefi returned to Kabul for the first time. There she wrote several short stories and eventually a novel, which appeared in 2011: Geen van ons keek om (None of Us Looked Back), the story of two girls living next-door to each other is partly autobiographical. The bosom friends are literally torn apart when the mujahedin bomb Kabul. Like Khaled Hosseini Akefi describes gruesome details about war crimes and abuse of women. Tahmina Akefi is working on a second novel, which will appear in 2013.