Inside her apartment, she moved with a dancer’s grace, unwrapping her shawl to reveal a cascade of thick brown hair that fell to her waist. Homeira breathed heavily as she scaled the last of more than a hundred steps in her headscarf and long-sleeved blouse.
Kabul-jan, she called it, using the Farsi term of endearment for “my dear Kabul.” And where she intended to spend the rest of her days writing more books and campaigning for women’s equality in a city she loved for its beauty and its possibilities, despite its dangers and its flaws. Where she earned fame, fans, and deadly enemies as an author and activist. Where, after a forced separation, she was raising Siawash to be an enlightened Afghan man. Where she regained her balance after Siawash’s father divorced her for challenging his decision to take a second wife. She returned to the apartment building where she’d remade her life. Homeira watched the van drive off, praying as always that a suicide attack wouldn’t kill him.
As Siawash scrambled inside, Homeira heard him boast to his friends about her daring battle plan. Mother and son turned a corner into a cobblestone alley where a van waited to take him to a private international school that taught classes in English. The temperature hovered around eighty degrees Fahrenheit when they stepped outside at 7 a.m. The electricity was out again in the middle-class Fourth District near Kabul University, so Homeira ignored the elevator and followed Siawash down ten flights of stairs. To speed their exit, she made him a promise that set his heart racing: tonight, after school, we’ll fight the Taliban. One bright summer morning in 2021, Homeira Qaderi hurried her eight-year-old son, Siawash, out the door of their Kabul apartment. Book excerpt: 'The Secret Gate: A True Story of Courage and Sacrifice During the Collapse of Afghanistan Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with author and Boston University journalism professor Mitch Zuckoff about his new book " The Secret Gate: A True Story of Courage and Sacrifice During the Collapse of Afghanistan." The book tells the stories of an Afghan women's rights advocate and the American junior diplomat who helps her escape Afghanistan.
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