Homeira Qaderi lived for reading and writing. In the mid-1990s, when she was 13 years old, the Taliban banned girls from going to school in Afghanistan, so she set up a secret classroom in her kitchen. She also taught young refugee children in a tent, risking death if she was caught, and sought out a teacher who could secretly instruct her in the art of writing stories. She later went to university in Iran and became a successful writer, academic and women's rights advocate. Homeira has written a memoir as a ‘mother’s letter to her son’, in which she tries to explain to him what growing up as a girl in Afghanistan was like, and the sacrifices she made along the way. She tells Jo Fidgen just how much she has had to battle to pursue her dream.

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Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Rebecca Vincent

Picture: Homeira Qaderi

Credit: Tim Schoon