Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother's Letter to Her Son – A Powerful Feminist Memoir of Resilience and Women’s Rights

A People Book of the Week & a Kirkus Best Nonfiction of the YearAn exquisite and inspiring memoir about one mother’s unimaginable choice in the face of oppression and abuse in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.In the days before Homeira Qaderi gavebirth to her son, Siawash, the road to the hospital in Kabul would often bebarricaded because of the frequent suicide explosions. With the city and the military onedge, it was not uncommon for an armed soldier to point his gun at the pregnant woman’sbulging stomach, terrified that she was hiding a bomb. Frightened and inpain, she was once forcedto make her way on foot. Propelled by the love she held for her soon-to-be-bornchild, Homeira walked through blood and wreckage to reach the hospital doors.But the joy of her beautiful son’s birth was soon overshadowed by other dangersthat would threaten her life.No ordinary Afghan woman, Homeira refusedto cower under the strictures of a misogynistic social order. Defying the law,she risked her freedom to teach children reading and writing and fought forwomen’s rights in her theocratic and patriarchal society.Devastating in its power, Dancing in the Mosque is a mother’s searing letter to a son she was forced to leave behind. In telling her story—and that of Afghan women—Homeira challenges you to reconsider the meaning of motherhood, sacrifice, and survival. Her story asks you to consider the lengths you would go to protect yourself, your family, and your dignity. Read more