Authors

Homeira Qaderi

Homeira Qaderi is an Afghan writer, activist, and educator. She has written seven books, including a collection of short stories and her acclaimed novel, Noqra: The Daughter of Kabul River (Rozgar Publishers, 2009). She wrote eleven books for children before leaving Afghanistan, taught at Gharjistan University in Kabul, and was the editor-in-chief of Rah-e Madanyat daily. Qaderi received her PhD in Persian literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India. As a life-long activist and a staunch defender of women's rights, Qaderi was awarded the Malalai Medal—Afghanistan’s highest civilian honor. She was a writer in residence at the University of Iowa in 2015. Her first book in English translation, Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother’s Letter to Her Son (Harper, 2020), was excerpted by the New York Times and chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best non-fiction books of 2020. Now at Radcliffe, Harvard, Qaderi is writing a novel, inspired largely by her own experiences, with a working title Tell Me Everything.

ARTICLES BY Homeira Qaderi

  • The Alphabet of Freedom: How Art Could Liberate Afghan Women

    The Alphabet of Freedom: How Art Could Liberate Afghan Women

    After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and the subsequent US involvement in Afghanistan, women who lived in cities and urban centers resumed their normal social life: They went to school, returned to the workplace, and no longer needed a mahram, a male companion according to the Taliban ..

  • Scholars in Context: Homeira Qaderi

    Scholars in Context: Homeira Qaderi

    These days I am working on a new novel called Tell Me Everything. This book focuses on the struggle of Afghan women to regain their place in society. In this story, several women try to help each other in misogynistic Afghan society to sol..