WELCOME!
Hello to all of you! I am very excited to share with you my love of Afghanistan! My name is Cat Parenti and I lived in Afghanistan on and off for 20 years.
This is a celebration of my love for the country, the people, culture, and food of Afghanistan.~ Cat Parenti
Cat Parenti is a transplanted Brooklynite, who graduated from Fordham University, lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan on and off for 20 years and survived the political twists and turns of Afghan politics from King Zahir Shah through the rise of the Taliban.
“In the beginning, I collected beautiful costumes and jewelry that I am preparing to exhibit here on this website; wrote a cookbook on their fabulous cuisine, a copy of which is in the Smithsonian Library in Washington, DC. I also taught Afghan cooking. When Afghan mujahideen (resistance fighters) came to my home in Arizona for medical treatment, I housed and fed them. They would say with reverence, “This is not Afghan food, this is not American food, this is Catee’s food.”
An amazon bestseller, Cat has published 5 books on Afghan culture and customs, one was in the Smithsonian Library. She started a successful export business selling Afghan clothing and tribal jewelry in the US. She has given many presentations including MOMA in NY and the U.N., as well as teaching Afghan cooking and culture. During the Soviet occupation, she became the Director of the Afghanistan Foundation’s Afghan Women’s Work Project, climbed the Hindu Kush Mountains three times with the Afghan resistance fighters (mujahideen), personally delivering humanitarian aid inside Afghanistan and to the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. She has received award letters for this work from Pres. Obama and First Lady Hillary Clinton as well as the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration for bringing wounded mujahideen to the States for medical treatment.
“During the war with the Soviets, I helped Afghan women revive their handicrafts’ business, the men their jewelry making business, delivered vegetable seed for crop planting, delivered cloth and shoes to the refugee camps in Pakistan and rh negative blood to the women’s hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan as well as bringing wounded mujahideen to the USA for medical treatment.”
She recently founded the Afghan Women’s Work Program (AWEP) which currently supports young widows and their children inside Afghanistan, giving them the means to do their embroidery work becoming self-sustaining members within the confines of current society.
“A Hand Up, Not a Handout.”
Delve into the adventure of Cat’s life in Afghanistan. Get your copy of Book I and Book II
Afghanistan A Memoir From Brooklyn to Kabul now.
