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Siamak Herawi was born in Herat province, Afghanistan, in 1968. He studied at Kabul University and Stavropol University in Moscow. Returning to Afghanistan in 1991, Herawi started his career as a reporter and later joined Anis Newspaper as its editor in chief. In 2003 he was appointed deputy spokesperson to President Hamid Kharzai, a position he held until he was transferred in 2012 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as deputy spokesperson. A year later, he was appointed charges d'affaires of the Embassy of Afghanistan in London. Herawi resigned from his position in 2014 when Ashraf Ghani was elected president and remained in the UK. Despite his long career in politics, Siamak Herawi is most recognised as one of Afghanistan's most prolific writers whose body of work includes twelve novels. Translator Sara Khalili is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. Her many translations include Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour.
"""There are echoes here of Miriam Toews’s Women Talking . . . Herawi’s first novel to be published in the U.S. has been rendered into clear, pointed prose by Sarah Khalili. He uses the pervasive rituals of household and village life to provide color and context and displays compelling empathy when he contrasts older women’s anger and resignation with the girls’ shock and despair upon realizing the physical and emotional imprisonment they face."" — Kirkus Reviews, starred review ""A dark warning for any society now facing the rise of extremist fundamentalism, and a literary feat of sublime compassion, Tali Girls is as painful to read as it is necessary. Siamak Herawi has given full voice to the suffering of Afghanistan’s women under Taliban rule. Oppression of this magnitude is a tragedy not only for a people, but for individuals with crushed hopes and lives—young Kowsar, Simin, Geesu. Know them, Herawi implores. The world must not turn away. The reader of this searing story can not."" — Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing and The Secret History of Kindness ""Tali Girls is an electrifying book. Swift, devastating, and unforgettable."" — Justin Torres, author of We the Animals and Blackouts ""Tali Girls is a harrowing novel about the brutal lives of women in a terrorist-controlled state. In the end, Kowsar’s fate remains an open question. This is, perhaps, the kindest possible conclusion to her story."" — Eileen Gonzalez, Forward Reviews, starred review “In Siamak Herawi’s Tali Girls, translated into crystalline English by Sara Khalili, we enter into an Afghanistan where women and girls earn every measure of their joy amidst lives torn asunder by a relentless conspiracy of empires. Tali Girls is an unforgettable story filled with characters I will carry with me.” — Kaveh Akbar, author of poetry collections Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf, and a novel called Martyr!"
