A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story

One of the rare memoirs of Afghanistan to have been written by an Afghan, A Fort of Nine Towers reveals the richness and suffering of life in a country whose history has become deeply entwined with our own.

For the young Qais Akbar Omar, Kabul was a city of gardens where he flew kites from his grandfathers roof with his cousin Wakeel while their parents, uncles, and aunts drank tea around a cloth spread in the grass. It was a time of telling stories, reciting poetry, selling carpets, and arranging marriages.Then civil war exploded. Their neighborhood found itself on the front line of a conflict that grew more savage by the day.

With rockets falling around them, Omars family fled, leaving behind everything they owned to take shelter in an old fort—only a few miles distant and yet a world away from the gunfire. As the violence escalated, Omars father decided he must take his children out of the country to safety. On their perilous journey, they camped in caves behind the colossal Buddha statues in Bamyan, and took refuge with nomad cousins, herding their camels and sheep. While his father desperately sought smugglers to take them over the border, Omar grew up on the road, and met a deaf-mute carpet weaver who would show him his lifes purpose.

Later, as the Mujahedin war devolved into Taliban madness, Omar learned about quiet resistance. He survived a brutal and arbitrary imprisonment, and, at eighteen, opened a secret carpet factory to provide work for neighborhood girls, who were forbidden to go to school or even to leave their homes. As they tied knots at their looms, Omars parents taught them literature and science.

In this stunning coming-of-age memoir, Omar recounts terrifyingly narrow escapes and absurdist adventures, as well as moments of intense joy and beauty. Inflected with folktales, steeped in poetry, A Fort of Nine Towers is a life-affirming triumph.

Twenty-three years ago, Kabul was a garden where seven-year-old Qais Akbar Omar flew kites from the roof of his grandfathers house. But then came the hollow sounds of rocket fire as the Mujahedin, self-proclaimed holy warriors, took over Afghanistan.

     A civil war exploded. Omars family fled to an old fort, leaving everything behind. Later, on a perilous trip to check on their home, Omar and his father were kidnapped and forced to labor belowground for weeks.

     Omars father decided that the family must leave the country. They took to the road, camping in caves behind the massive Buddha sculptures of Bamiyan, herding with nomad cousins, and learning from itinerant carpet makers as they sought a way out. Mujahedin defeat brought no relief, for the Taliban had secured power.

     Omar had learned about quiet resistance, and—now eighteen—he opened a secret carpet workshop, employing neighborhood girls forbidden to go to school or work outside their homes. His parents taught literature and science as the girls tied knots.

     In this stunning coming-of-age memoir, Omar recounts hardships and narrow escapes, as well as moments of intense joy and beauty. Inflected with folktales, steeped in poetry, A Fort of Nine Towers has a powerful, universal resonance. It is a life-affirming triumph.