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.
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.”
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.
Learn more about me, Cat Perenti, here.
I am available for interviews on radio, podcasts, television, and to speak live in person at high schools, colleges & universities, travel groups, women’s groups, cruise ships, teacher’s conferences, civic groups, and more.
“Afghanistan: A Memoir from Brooklyn to Kabul is a remarkable account of an amazing woman’s journeys through worlds, people, and cultures unknown to most Westerners. Both mesmerizing and heart-wrenching, the author brings her profound love for this land and its people to life. Courageous. Breathtaking. Inspiring”. -Linda Shay
“The author, Cat Parenti, has a way of writing that I felt like I was actually in Afghanistan. The stories of her travels and adventures kept me engaged. I didn’t want to put it down. I can’t wait to read the next in the series”. -Sandy Rogers
