Uncharted territory

92-Nemat-Sadat Nemat Sadat's book is the first gay love story from Afghanistan.

There are many reasons to read The Carpet Weaver. The most obvious? It is the first book by a gay writer on a same-sex relationship that has come out of war-torn Afghanistan. You should read the book because Nemat Sadat’s voice needs to be heard above the din of violence that engulfs the country. The Carpet Weaver is brave, fresh, engaging, and brings to light a different Afghanistan.

From a country in which literature has been limited to a certain period, with the 'T' word dominating the discourse, Sadat's book neither expresses a yearning for a pre-Taliban world nor does it try to make sense of the country since the emergence of the Taliban. It is a story of forbidden love, one that might have never been written or heard.

Rejected by 450 agents, the book was finally published in India by Penguin Random House. Sadat feels that Afghan writers have to follow a certain formula, and a gay love story does not fit the bill. “Even liberals don’t want to hear it,” he says. “If you show Afghan and Muslim women as constantly being victims and not breaking their chains, whether it is patriarchy or being forced into a certain sexuality, it is not sexy enough for an American audience.”

Sadat had to battle more than the demons in his own head to write the book over 11 years. “The day I started writing was the day after Barack Obama clinched his nomination,” he says. “It inspired me. If a biracial black man could win the nomination for a major party in the US, I could write the novel.”

It was not easy. At 23, when he admitted to himself that he was gay, he still had a girlfriend whom he had taken to a Britney Spears concert. After that, it took him seven years to muster the courage to tell his family. He remembers it was on a Christmas and his niece's birthday. His parents still tried to force him into a heterosexual marriage. “When I came out, they asked other people to start meddling,” he says.

The book begins with a powerful line: “'The one thing I know is that Allah never forgives sodomy,' my godfather Zaki Jaan pronounced.” It is Kanishka's 16th birthday and he is at the cusp of manhood. Girls from every family are vying for his attention. He, however, only has eyes for his best friend Maihan. This love that is forbidden and powerful is at the heart of the book.

The book is as much a story about Afghanistan as it is about Kanishka and his family. It is a story of survival as Kanishka finally flees to America. Sadat's story, too, is similar. Both his and his protagonist’s fathers are communists. “My father told me not to write the book,” he says. This pain of being rejected, of not being male enough, and the humiliation of it, is palpable. From Kanishka being ‘discovered’ in school to the bullying and the name-calling that followed are cruel, disturbing and impossible to forget.

His mother, however, is supportive. “My mom is the only one who has read it. Even though she supports LGBT rights, she still wishes I was not gay. Because I don't have a lover, she is concerned,” he says with a laugh.

THE CARPET WEAVER

Author: Nemat Sadat

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 304

Price: Rs599

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