From the outside, the magnificent 168-year-old library in the middle of Melbourne’s bustling CBD looked more like an exclusive club for the city’s elite to me, so I preferred working from one of the many cafes across the street. New to Australia, my magnifying glass was still set on Afghanistan, where the Taliban had taken over and the country was haphazardly sliding back to the dark ages.
But many cafes didn’t seem too keen to host someone buying just one or two lattes and sitting for hours at a computer. While I read about the Taliban’s morality police erasing women and girls from public life, I would often find myself distracted by the barista staring at me.
