How does a girl grow to be a woman in a society that shuts off every opportunity? How does a mother choose between her child and the future, not just her future but that of the women of Afghanistan? Homeira Qaderi answers these impossible questions in her stunning memoir, Dancing in the Mosque—one of the most moving love letters to life itself that you will ever read.” — Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Last Train to London
"A stunning reminder that stories and words are what sustain us, even—and perhaps especially—under the most frightening circumstances." — New York Times
"An unvarnished, memorable portrayal of a mother’s grief and love." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Best of the year 2020, Nonfiction
"A heartrending, indelible tale." — People
“Dancing in the Mosque is a remarkable story of great strength, perseverance, and personal sacrifice by a woman selflessly working to advance the rights of women in her homeland of Afghanistan, women and girls who yearn to be free. I so admire Homeira Qaderi's writing, but even more her courage. I wept when I read the words, " in this land, it is better to be a stone than a girl." Thank you, Homeira, for telling a story that everyone needs to read." — Deborah Rodriquez, author of New York Times bestseller The Kabul Beauty School and Little Coffee Shop in Kabul
“A modern-day Sophie's Choice, this memoir about a mother's love for her child and country is heartbreaking, but also triumphantly hopeful and inspiring. Thank God for courageous women like Homeira Qaderi.” — Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Secrets Between Us
“'God never answers the prayers of girls,' the Afghan writer Homeira Qaderi was told when the Taliban invaded her native city of Herat. But her new book, Dancing in the Mosque, is a kind of answered prayer born of her courage, indomitable will, and storytelling gifts. In this remarkable blend of memoir and anguished letter in exile to a son she cannot see, Qaderi reminds us that the pen is mightier than the sword, especially when it is in the hands of a writer who invites her readers to dance in the mosque." — Christopher Merrill, author of Self-Portrait with Dogwood
'God never answers the prayers of girls,' the Afghan writer Homeira Qaderi was told when the Taliban invaded her native city of Herat. But her new book, Dancing in the Mosque, is a kind of answered prayer born of her courage, indomitable will, and storytelling gifts. In this remarkable blend of memoir and anguished letter in exile to a son she cannot see, Qaderi reminds us that the pen is mightier than the sword, especially when it is in the hands of a writer who invites her readers to dance in the mosque."
"A stunning reminder that stories and words are what sustain us, even—and perhaps especially—under the most frightening circumstances."
How does a girl grow to be a woman in a society that shuts off every opportunity? How does a mother choose between her child and the future, not just her future but that of the women of Afghanistan? Homeira Qaderi answers these impossible questions in her stunning memoir, Dancing in the Mosque—one of the most moving love letters to life itself that you will ever read.”
"A heartrending, indelible tale."
A modern-day Sophie's Choice, this memoir about a mother's love for her child and country is heartbreaking, but also triumphantly hopeful and inspiring. Thank God for courageous women like Homeira Qaderi.
“Dancing in the Mosque is a remarkable story of great strength, perseverance, and personal sacrifice by a woman selflessly working to advance the rights of women in her homeland of Afghanistan, women and girls who yearn to be free. I so admire Homeira Qaderi's writing, but even more her courage. I wept when I read the words, " in this land, it is better to be a stone than a girl." Thank you, Homeira, for telling a story that everyone needs to read."
12/01/2020
Qaderi's (Silver Kabul River Girl) life has been anything but peaceful. Growing up in Hera¯t, Afghanistan, she spent long hours in the basement of her family's home, sheltering from errant gunfire during the war with the Soviet Union. After a brief peace, warring factions emerged within the country and the Taliban soon came to the forefront, shutting down schools for girls and limiting women's freedom. However, from childhood Qaderi harbored a spirit of rebellion and perseverance. Questioning the limitations on women and forming secret groups to advance her own writing and to teach refugee children, Qaderi persists. Her writing demonstrates her resilience in the face of wars, the Taliban, and, later, marriage to a man she meets the day of her wedding. Dancing in the Mosque is the story of Qaderi and the women of Afghanistan, penned as a love letter to the son that was taken from her after her husband divorced her. VERDICT A shocking, heartbreaking tale of the wars and gender inequality in Afghanistan. This personal story, centered on Qaderi's unquenchable spirit in the face of overwhelming odds, will appeal to a vast audience.—Stacy Shaw, Denver
★ 2020-09-08
A powerful narrative of a life marked by courage and despair.
In a riveting memoir, Qaderi recounts her life story for the son she left behind in Afghanistan. When she refused to accept her husband’s taking a second wife, he divorced her, taking away their 19-month-old child. “Every day I regret my decision to leave you,” she writes in a moving testimony to her love. The author was a young girl during the brutal Russian occupation of Afghanistan; two years after the Russians left in 1989, the Taliban rose to power. Suddenly streets were filled with “young men with beards and long hair and kohl eyeliner…tall and thin as if they had been starved for years.” They instituted Sharia law, closed girls schools, and forbade reading; those who disobeyed were publicly whipped or worse. Describing herself as a troublemaker, Qaderi rebelled, daring to home-school girls when she was 13 and soon secretly teaching girls, boys, and even two young members of the Taliban within a mosque. It was there that one of her students taught her to dance—at the risk of all their lives. Boldly, Qaderi managed to set up a writing class under the guise of learning needlework. Merely being female made her physically vulnerable. She was twice sexually harassed, once by a lewd religious leader. Taliban men often forced young girls to marry them, a fate she feared. At the age of 17, her family considered her lucky to marry a local man, and she was taken to live with his family in Tehran. There, women’s freedom amazed her. “In Iran,” she writes, “a good woman could be an independent and educated woman.” Married for 15 years to a husband she grew to love, and who supported her accomplishments, she was shocked when, after they returned to Kabul, he announced that he would take another wife—an act she could not abide.
An unvarnished, memorable portrayal of a mother’s grief and love.
