Braids of Ashes…..”Poetry Born from Displacement"

A few days ago, poet Norhan Hassan signed her first poetry collection, titled Braids of Ashes, during a ceremony held at the Rojava Union of Intellectuals Center in the city of Qamishlo.

Norhan began writing reflections and prose texts years before she was displaced from Afrin. However, her literary journey was interrupted after she was displaced in 2018, following attacks by the Turkish occupying state on the city. Alongside thousands of displaced people, she spent seven years in the camps of Shahba, where the harsh conditions of displacement took a heavy toll on her psychological well-being.

Norhan says that most of her writings remained in Afrin, and that the severity of that period, along with the suffering that accompanied it, led her to distance herself from writing for a long time.

After being displaced for the second time, from Shahba to Qamishlo at the end of December 2025, and as she gradually managed to overcome the weight of the experience and regain her psychological balance, Norhan returned to writing. She says that the dream of publishing a printed book had stayed with her for years, until she was able, last year, to compile her poems into her first collection, Braids of Ashes.

Today, Norhan is considering publishing further works through which she can document her personal story, as well as the stories of thousands of people who experienced displacement and the suffering and resilience that accompanied it.

In her poetry collection, Norhan addresses themes of pain, displacement, love, and the loss of children. Through her condensed texts, she evokes emotions and experiences inspired by her journey of displacement and the profound human transformations that accompanied it.

She emphasizes that her writings are a reflection of the feelings of every woman who has endured pain, and of every woman who works in life and carries a weapon while defending the principles and ideas with which she was raised and which have become part of her identity and being.

Norhan dedicated the cover of her collection to a female fighter from the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), who was martyred during attacks by forces affiliated with the transitional government on Raqqa in January of this year, after her braid attracted widespread attention. She chose the title Braids of Ashes in inspiration from that braid, describing it as a message affirming women’s resilience in the face of adversity.

“I wanted to affirm the resilience of women,” she said.

Poet Norhan Hassan concluded her remarks by saying: “I hope that we will not be displaced again, and that we will return to our city and our homes, and that security and peace will prevail.”

Braids of Ashes was edited and proofread by Walid Ramzi Bakr. The cover was designed by Helana Dadako, and the collection was printed by Black Stone Publishing.

The back cover also bears the phrase “Her Braids,” a title that encapsulates the relationship between women and their freedom and their resistance to oppression and slavery. It also symbolizes the homeland as a woman carrying the memory of pain and resilience.

The back cover additionally features the phrase, “From her braids, we smell the scent of the earth,” through which the poet expresses her hope that the book will travel to cities and safely reach hearts suspended like lanterns in the sky of Rojava.

ANHA