August 22, 2013 was an important day in Afghan history, and also in Nemat Sadat’s life. Sadat was the first person from Afghanistan to come out, through a post shared on Facebook. There has been no looking back for Sadat ever since – despite the numerous death threats he has received for being Muslim and proudly gay, despite being disowned by his father, he continues to make his voice heard as he campaigns for LGBTQ rights amongst Muslim communities worldwide. Sadat’s debut novel, The Carpet Weaver, was published in India in June 2019 after being rejected by some 450 agents before India’s top literary agent Kanishka Gupta took him on. Sadat spoke to Scroll.in about his journey with writing and publishing his novel, its contribution to the canon of queer literature, and what he will write next.