Dehumanization Of Women In The Kite Runner

After many years of war with the Soviet’s, the people of Afghanistan looked towards a group to take control and return the peace. However, in a situation similar to the rise of Hitler in Germany, a group called the Taliban took control of the land. The Taliban rapidly rose to power in Afghanistan, imposing laws on citizens with punishments many deemed gruesome and harsh, many of these laws can be seen in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. These laws and their dehumanizing qualities bring a lot of attention to this country and the events that occurred, and bring a shock to those who learn about them.

Formed in the early 1990’s the Taliban initially attracted a lot of support after the Soviet War. The country of Afghanistan was divided

into a collection of territories and the citizens looked desperately for someone to bring back the peace the country once had. This search led to the Taliban, who pledged to restore peace, eliminate corruption, and allow commerce (Hayes, Brunner, and Rowen). The people thought that they had finally found a group that could restore life in Afghanistan to the way it was before the war. Unfortunately, this peace was short lived and the Taliban began seizing more areas of Afghanistan, “The Northern Alliance took over Kabul between 1992 and 1996, different factions claimed different parts” (Hosseini 199). By 1996 the Taliban had control of 90 percent of the country.
After the Taliban had gained control of most of Afghanistan, they began to impose strict laws, most of which were against women; women were not to work outside of the home, no women’s presence in media, or public gatherings (RAWA).

These very restrictive laws against women are portrayed in The Kite Runner just by the sheer lack of main female characters in the book, the only real woman who is learned about in depth is Amir’s wife in America. While many of the laws did pertain to women, traditional activities were deemed illegal as well, such as kite flying, a once very popular pastime for children and families. In the novel Hassan teaches his son to fly kites the way he and Amir did when they were young and, “A few weeks later, the Taliban banned kite flying” (Hosseini 213). Another law imposed was that men could not shave their beards, if a man shaved or even trimmed his beard, it was deemed un-Islamic and he would be punished. As portrayed on page 247 of The Kite Runner, patrols of Taliban members would monitor citizens on the streets, checking their beards and making sure women were not acting out of their

place.
If any person was caught breaking these laws, the Taliban also put into place gruesome punishments.

During Amir’s search for the Talib official, he and Farid go to a soccer match at Ghazi Stadium, where no cheering is allowed and the halftime entertainment is the public stoning of a man and a woman. “The Talib...hurled the stone at the blindfolded man in the hole” (Hosseini 271). Along with the laws and harsh punishments, the Taliban conducted “ethnic cleansings” in a form very similar to the Nazi’s in Germany. “The Hazara massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif...happened just after the Taliban took over”(Hosseini 277). The Hazara Massacre occurred in 1998, where thousands of Hazaras, mostly males, were killed in front of their families, it’s estimated that between 4,000 and 6,000 people were killed

(Rashid).
Afghanistan was once a very forward thinking country, where women had rights and children ran throughout the streets having fun throughout the day, but in the aftermath of a war with the Soviets, the country looked toward a group to restore Afghanistan to its former glory. Unfortunately, the Taliban seized control on the premise of restoring the peace, however, they began to impose cruel laws and harsh punishments against their citizens, making the country a very dangerous and oppressive place to live.