Written by Surbhi Gupta |Updated: July 1, 2019 8:18:32 am
Afghan-American writer Nemat Sadat on weaving a gay love story, living in a homeless shelter in the US and why he feels at home in India
Born in Afghanistan, Nemat Sadat was only five when he fled to the US with his mother and siblings after the war broke out in 1979.
Writer Nemat Sadat turned forty last week and celebrated it with the launch of his debut novel The Carpet Weaver (Rs 399, Penguin Random House) at New Delhi’s Imperial Hotel. Born in Afghanistan, he was only five when he fled to the US with his mother and siblings after the war broke out in 1979. Life in southern California went on as usual, till 9/11 happened. Soon Sadat moved to the East Coast and studied at Harvard and Columbia. At 23, he came out to himself as gay but the family was told seven years later. In the year 2012, the journalist was in the news for initiating an underground queer rights movement in Afghanistan, when he was teaching at the American University of Afghanistan. Now his book is a talking point. It tells the tale of Kanishka, the 16-year-old son of a leading carpet seller in Afghanistan, who falls in love with his friend Maihan. They keep their romance a secret to avoid the death penalty meted out to those deemed to be kuni (a derogatory term for gay men). The book chronicles Kanishka’s search for Maihan after the two are separated during the war. Excerpts from an interview with Sadat:
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