I am also grateful to my good friend Vanisa Saffari, who was eager to translate some of the early chapters of this memoir. She was able to patiently render the pained voice in my story into English. I thank my friend Brian Glyn Williams and his friend Deborah Rodriguez, whose acquaintance led me to my literary agent, Marly Rusoff.
I want to thank Marly Rusoff, who took the time to read the first draft and who was able to see that the rebel in this narrative has a cause she is fighting for—giving voice to the silenced struggle of the women of Afghanistan and of the third world.
I appreciate the efforts of Sara Nelson and her dedicated colleagues, Jane Cavolina and Jennifer Teng, at HarperCollins who did their due diligence in editing and revising the memoir, making sure the final product landed safely on bookstore shelves.
I owe particular thanks to Dr. Zaman Stanizai, whose cross-cultural understanding of both the American and the Afghan societies helped bridge the gap between them. I am grateful to him for being ready and willing to take over midway the task of translation and editing of this memoir and for reading patiently through the many drafts of translations and revisions.
Last and certainly not least, I am deeply indebted to my son Siawash for being in my life. His presence led me to fight for the principles of womanhood and motherhood. If it hadn’t been for the strength of our bonding, I would probably have never experienced the longing Afghan women experience when they go through custody battles without any moral or legal support. Siawash has taught me that mothering in Afghanistan often amounts to running on the sharp edge of a sword.
About the Author
HOMEIRA QADERI is an award-winning Afghan writer and a courageous advocate for women’s rights and the empowerment of Afghan civil society. Born in Kabul, she spent her early childhood in Herat during the Russian occupation. For a time as a child, Homeira lived the harsh reality of a refugee life under a tent in an Iranian village across the border.
She returned to Afghanistan in the calm before the storm of the civil war. She lived her teen years under Taliban suppression, but she didn’t give up on her activism. She was one of three girls who secretly pursued literary writing. Homeira wrote short stories and had them published under her name. She secretly taught the internally displaced children in refugee tents and in her modest home in Herat. She was witness to the self-immolation of her best friends. These suicides left deep scars on Homeira. In her teen years, she gave in to a marriage proposal and headed for Iran once again.
In Iran, Homeira became even more determined to write her own destiny. She pursued her advanced studies at the university. While studying in Iran, for five years Homeira served as director of the Afghan Artists and Cultural Instructors Society.
In the meantime, Homeira began writing novels in earnest. In 2003, she received the Sadegh Hedayat award in Iran for her short story titled “Baz Baran Agar Mibarid,” “If It Is Going to Rain Again.” She also published the following books:
Anis’ Earring, a collection of short stories, 2007.
Noqrah, a Girl from Kabul River, a novel, 2009.
100 Years of Story Writing in Afghanistan, nonfiction, 2009.
The Painting of a Deer Hunt: A Fable of Women and Men, a novel, 2010.
Aqlema, a novel, 2015.
Reflection of War and Exile in Stories of Afghanistan, nonfiction, 2015.
Homeira obtained a bachelor’s degree in Persian literature from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran in 2005. In 2007, she received her master’s degree in literature from Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran and was admitted to the PhD program in Persian literature. In 2014, she was awarded a PhD in Persian literature by Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.
After returning to Afghanistan, Dr. Qaderi began her career as a professor of Persian literature at some of the most renowned private universities in Kabul, such as Mash’al, Gharjistan, and Kateb. During the same period, she became an active member of the civil rights movement, focusing on ways to achieve equal rights for Afghan women.
In 2011, Dr. Qaderi presented in the UN-sponsored Second Bonn Conference in Germany: The International Conference on Afghanistan on the plight of Afghan women and their fight for equal rights. In the same year, she presented in China on alleviating poverty and promoting better conditions for women in Afghanistan and on the deprivation and oppression of Afghan women.
In 2012, Dr. Qaderi attended the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan, organized by 100 countries and their civic activists. As a member of the Afghan delegation, she requested that foreign assistance to the Afghan government be directed to benefit Afghan women. In December 2014, Dr. Qaderi participated in the London Conference on Afghanistan.
Dr. Qaderi also worked as an adviser to the minister of labor and social affairs. She worked within the government system to improve the dire conditions of widows and orphans and tried to establish programs so that they would be able to achieve self-sufficiency.
In 2015, Dr. Qaderi was invited to attend the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. She was then invited to present on the plight of Afghan women in several cultural forums in California, where she took up residence.
After returning to Afghanistan in December 2018, Dr. Qaderi accepted an appointment as a senior adviser to the minister of education with the government of Afghanistan. In that capacity, she traveled extensively in Afghanistan to see educational facilities and opportunities for women in the provinces.
There is no one more capable or more well positioned than Homeira Qaderi to provide readers with an intimate, personal, and riveting chronicle of one defiant girl’s coming of age in a war-torn Afghanistan. In her own words:
As one of the youngest refugees the Soviet-occupied Afghanistan of the 1980s produced, I breathed in resilience in the cradle. The day I was caught in the crossfire on the way home from the bakery could’ve been my last; instead, I made it home safe—not so the loaf of bread whose edges were bitten off by a very hungry child—the teeth bites were my size by a mere coincidence. The day my aunt Zahra was martyred before my eyes could’ve been my last or the day my aunt Azizah, who was walking just one step ahead of me, when a bullet struck her in the knee, knocking her to the ground. Kismet could’ve written it as my last day when I fell from the motorcycle and smashed my face on a rock as we were being smuggled across the border or the day my little brother Jahid was run over by a trailer truck as we both tried to cross the street. My last day in this world could’ve been the day the Taliban poured into our house searching for hidden weapons and Commander Moosa’s eyes fell on me instead, or any day during the three years I spent in exile after my baby was snatched from me—I could’ve died in any of those moments I was away from my son. . . . And there were many other days when several of my close friends died by self-immolation. I died with every one of them, but my spirit always rose from the ashes. I just couldn’t die so soon; not if the battle for women’s rights in Afghanistan was still raging where the injustices were too severe, the suppression too intolerable, the task too daunting, and the risks too high. The chick commander had to rise to the occasion and listen to the drumbeat of a forward march as destiny watched from the nearby hilltops.
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Copyright
dancing in the mosque. Copyright © 2020 by Homeira Qaderi. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Ornamental art by Shutterstock/Anna Poguliaeva
Cover design by Andrea Guinn
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ver photographs © Arjun Haridaas/Alamy Stock Photo (girls); © tnkorn yangaun/Shutterstock (tree)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition DECEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-297033-6
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-297031-2
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