Homeira Qaderi: ‘We are not going back to the dark ages’

On International Women's Day, TFP proudly publishes the best-selling author of "Dancing in the Mosque" on what she hopes for future generations of Afghan girls and women.

Afghan girls walking in the mountains near Chagcharan, Aug. 25, 2012 (iStock)

From the TFP Archives

This article was first published by TFP in February 2022, shortly after our launch. We were honored then—as we are now—to publish Ms. Qaderi, a fearless advocate for Afghan women’s rights, professor of Persian literature, and the best-selling author of Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother’s Letter to Her Son. On this International Women’s Day, what she writes below remains true: “The rallying cry of Afghan women is that peace with the Taliban, without their guaranteed commitment to women’s rights, amounts to a declaration of war against women.” Please read and share this important essay with others. — MJ