As the daughter of an Afghan refugee who fled to America during the first Taliban takeover in the 90’s, Zartasha grew up to enlist in the US Army, honor-bound to protect the country that gave her family a second chance. She serves as a Pashtu translator, embedded in a small unit that conducts village patrols in the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan. Despite the love for her perilous job, her true passion lies in the conversations she has with the Afghan women she meets. From them, she collects local folktales and snippets of her roots. At night, she weaves the story fragments into a book she hopes to gift her homesick mother upon her return.