Joan Mackenzie reviews Dancing in the Mosque by Homeira Qaderi

Hello I'm Joan and this book is called Dancing in the Mosque by Homeira Qaderi. It's about life on the other side of the world from me in Afghanistan. What it was like to grow up young and female in a very patriarchal society. Particularly once the Taliban turned up. Girls over there weren't allowed to get an education. They weren't allowed to play. There were all sorts of things they weren't allowed to do. And then once you've started to live in fear of the Taliban knocking on your door at any time of the day or night. Things must have really got very very grim. She was a very brave young girl encouraged by her parents and reading about how she managed to try and make a life and a future for herself is very moving. She was eventually married off in an arranged marriage and lived happy for a time. But eventually her husband divorced her by text message and from that point she never saw her 19 month old son again. And to the best of my knowledge has never seen him since. This is a really deeply moving affecting extraordinary memoir about what life must be like for so many women. And it was all new to me.