If you have not heard of bacha bazi and want to know more, I suggest you begin by watching the 2010 documentary by Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan. The practice is well recognised in Afghanistan, although not accepted. There are also many personal and public reports of Western aid workers and soldiers confronted with the practice being told by their superiors to ignore it. Successive Afghan governments have made little effort to confront it. Paedophilia is the abhorrent underbelly of society in Afghanistan as much as it is in the West. Nowhere is immune.
My research for The Night Letters was exhaustive but I am not an Afghan. Broad brushstrokes were easier to discern; imagination is important, but the nuances of a culture – the things that bring it to life – are harder to grasp. When the manuscript was completed I asked two Afghan women to read it with an eye to authenticity and accuracy. Their input was enlightening and invaluable. My deepest appreciation goes to Humaira Ghilzai, a professional cultural advisor for all things Afghan, and to Aalam Gul Farhad, an Afghan woman with a Master of Women’s Studies. Thank you both again and again. I also would like to mention Drukhshan Farhad, who I had the pleasure of mentoring for a short time. A talented and intelligent woman, it was Drukhshan who suggested her sister, Aalam, read the manuscript.
I want to thank all those friends (listed in order of reading) who were generous enough to review various drafts of the manuscript (I still cringe at some of the things you had to read): Alan Leith, Jane Morgan, Rosie Scott (my dear Rosie, I hope you would have approved of the finished product), Sophie Haythornthwaite, Sally Fitzpatrick, Michael Robotham and Sally Tabner from Bookoccino. Have I forgotten anyone? Thank you, Matthew Haymes, for Bali and the peace and quiet I needed to finish the first draft all those years ago.
While all of you gave me precious gifts and insights, I especially need to thank Michael Robotham, who told me I was trying to write two books in one and that I needed to decide which story I actually wanted to tell. As a writer you can get so stuck on what you want the story to be that you cannot see what it wants to be. Throwing away a third of the manuscript, I started again. Only then did all the pieces begin to fall into place and the people of Shaahir Square really come to life.
Thank you to all my dear friends. You sustain me. You know who you are.
And finally, to the man I have loved for over forty years. There is a path that leads from heart to heart.
DENISE LEITH is a Sydney author, and former lecturer of International Relations, and Middle East politics at Macquarie University. Her debut novel, What Remains (Allen & Unwin, 2012) was shortlisted for the Asher Award and the Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards - Christina Stead Award. She has also published two non-fiction works, The Politics of Power (University of Hawaii Press, 2002), and Bearing Witness: the Lives of War Correspondents and Photojournalists (Random House Australia, 2004). Denise’s work has involved extensive travel, including time in an AIDS hospital in South Africa, in a refugee camp in the Middle East and in an isolated village in the mountains of West Papua. Denise has spent a number of years mentoring Afghan women in fiction and non-fiction. She currently resides on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
