COM’s Mitchell Zuckoff Re-creates a Suspenseful Story from the Chaotic US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Photos and cover courtesy of Mitchell Zuckoff
COM’s Mitchell Zuckoff Re-creates a Suspenseful Story from the Chaotic US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
In his new book, The Secret Gate, best-selling author tells the tale of an American, an Afghan, and Kabul’s last days before the Taliban returned
Americans who were shamed or traumatized by our tumultuous Afghanistan pullout in 2021 are duly warned about Mitchell Zuckoff’s new book, The Secret Gate (Penguin/Random House). In granular detail, Zuckoff, Sumner M. Redstone Professor in Narrative Studies at the College of Communication, re-creates the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government and the desperate stampede out by America’s Afghan allies.
Among those weighing whether to flee the victorious, vengeful Taliban regime was Homeira Qaderi, a full-throated spokeswoman for women’s rights whose feminist memoir, Dancing in the Mosque, enraged traditionalists with its very title. Circumstance braided her fate with that of Sam Aronson, an idealistic American diplomat and volunteer in evacuating Afghans who’d helped the United States. The book is both a thriller about whether Qaderi will survive and a reflection on our debt to allies after America’s longest-ever, 20-year war.
Zuckoff, author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11, had a storied journalism career before BU, including as a Pulitzer finalist while a special projects reporter at the Boston Globe. He discusses researching the new book and how it affected his thoughts about what we did and failed to do in Afghanistan.
Q&A
With Mitchell Zuckoff
BU Today: How did you learn of Homeira and Sam’s story, and how did you go about researching the book?
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BU Today: Which scenes or anecdotes in the book have most stayed with you?
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BU Today: Has writing this book changed your views about our decision to invade, and our decision to withdraw? Homeira makes clear her feeling that the withdrawal betrayed her people, but after 20 years of war, is that fair?
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BU Today: Did you sense a kindred soul in the well-traveled Sam?
I’d be flattering myself if I said yes! Sam is a terrific young man whom I admire greatly. What I will say is that I share Sam’s belief that it’s incumbent upon all of us to do what we can to help others, even if that involves personal and professional risk. I hope that if I had been at the Kabul Airport in August 2021, I would have shown even a fraction of Sam’s integrity and bravery.
BU Today: To a reader, Homeira’s initial refusal to flee seems patriotic and honorable, but also irresponsible, given that she has a young son depending on her, and the futility of stopping the Taliban is clear. How do you view her delay in leaving Afghanistan?
I’ve given this a great deal of thought. I admit that, at first, I didn’t fully understand her decision not to try to flee immediately. But the better I got to know her, the more I realized that she felt a legitimate, deep obligation to the women of Afghanistan to stay and fight. She also didn’t want to leave her extended family, who didn’t have an international coalition of supporters trying to help them to emigrate. Kabul was her entire world, the place where she planned to spend the rest of her days. She’d worked incredibly hard to buy a home, recover from a terrible divorce, regain custody of Siawash, and establish herself as a leading public voice for women’s rights. She never expected the Taliban to reach Kabul, or certainly not so quickly. Neither did the Afghan and US governments, for that matter. So, I think it makes perfect sense that it took a few days for her to accept that she needed to leave to save her son and herself.
It’s been a privilege to get to know Homeira and Sam. It should never have been necessary for Sam to volunteer to put himself in harm’s way and to take the risks he did to help others. Homeira should never have had to leave her homeland and her family. Both are incredible people whose actions deserve our attention and admiration. I’m deeply grateful they trusted me to tell their individual and shared stories, and I hope I did them justice.
Mitchell Zuckoff and Homeira Qaderi will discuss The Secret Gate at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, on May 10 at 6 pm. RSVP here for the event, sponsored by the Harvard Book Store.
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