Remembering Ajmal and creating diverse forms of narrative family therapy

This paper shares a tender story from the Stanikzai family, a family from Afghanistan who now live in Australia. It is generously offered in the hope that it may assist other mothers and families who are silently grieving in their homes and who we can’t expect to bring their suffering to professional counselling offices. This paper tells the story of Ziba Stanikzai, who was very much suffering after one of her sons, Ajmal, was killed in Afghanistan. This paper is an honouring of Ajmal’s life and memory. It is told through the perspectives of each of the authors. It begins with the words of Ajmal’s older brother Dr Abdul. Later you will read a series of letters linking the Stanikzai family with many others. These letters weave together storylines of loss, love and memory. They also represent a nuanced form of narrative family therapy and convey how this was a culturally and spiritually resonant response to suffering.