Nemat Sadat is the author of The Carpet Weaver, which was published by Penguin India in June 2019. Sadat’s novel opened to wide critical acclaim in the Indian national press and was India’s most written about debut fiction last year. Sadat was also profiled in many publications such as Grazia India, The Sunday Guardian, and VOGUE India. 

Sadat is the first native from Afghanistan to have publicly come out as gay and campaign for LGBTQIA rights in Muslim communities worldwide. While teaching at the American University of Afghanistan, he secretly mobilized a gay movement off campus but was then persecuted by the Afghan authorities and deemed a national security threat for allegedly subverting Islam. Sadat has previously worked as a journalist at ABC News’s Nightline, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and the UN Chronicle, and has earned six university degrees, including graduate degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and Oxford. He is working on his second novel while touring the Indian Subcontinent to promote The Carpet Weaver.