This was definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. Homeira Qaderi opens her heart to tell her son the truth of her life and explain the reasons for her absence. This is a sad, but inspiring tale, told primarily through letters to the author's son. If you've ever been curious about the life of the citizens under the Taliban or wanting to understand more of the female perspective, this should be your next read!
Homeira's daring nature defies her culture in its denial of education for young women. In taking such risk, she becomes a hero among both her female students and silenced admirers (in particular, a young Taliban soldier). But heroes are not immune to their own trauma. Young Homeira suffers her own tragedy and in doing so, bears a son, who she must eternally grieve as they are traumatically separated for life.
This book will stick with me for some time. I enjoyed Homeira's openness, courage, and continued efforts to connect with her beloved son. I hope that she does one day reunite with him and can relish in the joy being engorged fully with love and respect for one another.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for this review!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper, and Harper Audio for the arc and audiobook of this title.

Dancing in the Mosque by Homeira Qaderi is an incredibly powerful memoir that profiles what it was like to grow up and live in Afghanistan.

The story is told in a set of letters from Homeira to her son who she was forced to leave behind. In them she tells a story about the oppression and fears her family faced under the various regimes in Afghanistan and how much worse everything became under the Taliban. She explains the restrictions imposed on her by her family and society as a whole because she was a woman.

I highly recommend this book to people wanting to know more about the plight of women in Afghanistan. Honestly it is much broader than what I have outlined but I really don't want to spoil the overall power of the story. This is not an easy story by any means. It is, in fact, a heartbreaking one. But at the same time, I thought it was an important one for me to learn. You can't really appreciate what you have, until you read stories like this one and discover realities that are almost inconceivable.

My review for Shelf Awareness Pro is here: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3860#m50394

The review was also cross-posted to Smithsonian BookDragon: http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/dancing-in-the-mosque-an-afghan-mothers-letter-to-her-son-by-homeira-qaderi-translated-by-zaman-stanizai-in-shelf-awareness/

This book made me cry actual tears. Qaderi writes about the heartwrenching experience of having her son taken from her while also outlining the horrors of growing up under the shadow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Though she finds moments of joy and depicts the kernels of hope in a beautiful way, the events of her life are often brutal.

If you need a good cry but want to read a thoughtfully written memoir, try this one.

The plight of women in Afghanistan was first brought to my attention by the book Three Cups of Tea. This book is a more personal account. Homeira Quaderi grew up in Herat. First it was the Russian and then it was the Taliban. While Afghanistan has always giving women little freedom, the Taliban took it away from anyone who disagreed with them. Having to give up school, live behind closed doors and only allowed to go outside the home if accompanied by a male relative, Homeira chafed at the inequity. I found decision as a young girl to teach her neighbors and then expand education into the refuge camps one of the bravest things I’ve read about. She was forced to marry a man from the neighborhood at age 17, to save her from being taken by Taliban who wanted to marry her. Moving to Iran was an eye-opener for her. There was so much more freedom and she was able to get her Ph.D because Irani women were encouraged to independent and educated. On their return to Kabul where her husband was employed by the government, she found the only thing worth living for was her newly born son. As she writes her history, she includes letters she has written to her son. After being divorced from her husband, she relinquished all contact with her son and moved to California. The story told in first person is very powerful

Homeira Qaderi has lived such a heartbreaking and inspiring life, and her memoir is as moving and thought provoking as you would expect from such an exceptional woman.
Dancing in the Mosque is a memoir- telling of Qaderi's childhood living in Afghanistan while it was under Russian occupation, then while it was struck with civil war, and finally while it was under the control of the Taliban. Readers will learn how passionate she has always been about women's rights, and the ways she has put her life at risk to speak up, act out, and write about the norms that she considered unacceptable- especially the restrictive role that society tells her that females were meant to take on.
But this book is not just a memoir of her formative years. It is also a heartfelt attempt to reach out to her son, whom she hasn't seen since he was a toddler, when her husband forced her to choose between her son and everything that makes her, her. She will never give up on her attempts to connect with her son, but life has taught her that her words are her strongest weapon, and she will use them.

I really enjoyed this memoir for its raw truth. It wasn't trying to make you feel anything besides the authentic experience of being a woman in that world. There were moments that felt like triumph and ones that left me devastated. And yet, throughout the whole book you had these letters, which at first I thought were journal entries. So Homeira is telling us stories from two different times and periods in her life, but she's also letting you, the reader, know - she's ok.

I will be recommending this book to friends. It' so important that we explore lives that we will never live, shoes that we will never wear, and homes that will never be our own. This is, absolutely rr

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..
I really learned alot about life for women in Afganistan. We have a lot to be thankful for in USA.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

4 star

Beautifully written, Homeira Qaderi writes a letter to her soon that she can't see. The father of her son won't allow it. Her letters speak of her childhood and why she ended up in California. It is such a unique perspective.

Dancing in the Mosque is thd powerful memoir of a woman growing up in Afghanistan both during Russian and then Taliban control. Her story is broken up as messages to the son taken from her when her husband divorced her. To a woman of similar age who had the luck of being born in a place where women are given equality, it was a painful reminder of the horrors women are faced with around the world. Yet the story is filled with hope and love as well, from her family and her determination to stand up for herself, those who were lost and those who come after her.