Swallows of Kabul is a novel by Yasmina Khadra, the pen name for Mohammed Moulessehoul. Published in 2002, this historical novel considers the lives of four Muslims struggling to survive after the Taliban ascendancy. The novel was published to great critical acclaim. Khadra was celebrated for finding a meaning behind Algerian violence and communicating this to readers. Moulessehoul, adopting this pen name to avoid military censorship, only revealed his true identity after his exile to France. Swallows of Kabul was nominated for the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award. The book is set in Kabul. Atiq Shaukat is a jailer who guards those sentenced to death under the regime; he’s depressed and miserable. To add to his troubles, his wife, …show more content…
His family is now poor and struggling. He’s in the marketplace when Atiq leads the prostitute forward. This is a public execution by stoning. Mohsen knows it’s morally wrong to kill this woman, but he feels he must join in. He throws a rock at her head and cracks it open. Atiq questions why he’s doing the job he does after the woman’s death. Her death makes him think of his own wife, but he’s distracted when he runs into his old friend, Mirza Shah. They’ve been friends for years, and it saddens Atiq to see Mirza dealing drugs for money. Atiq tells Mirza his troubles, but Mirza tells him to throw his wife out. He says women can’t feel anything and Atiq deserves to divorce and be happy. Atiq, however, can’t do that to Musarrat. He’s indebted to her for once saving his life. Meanwhile, Mohsen returns home to his wife, Zunaira—an ex-schoolteacher. Their house has no windows because they can’t afford to fix them; they cover the holes with blankets so no other men walking by can see Zunaira. Mohsen tells her what happened at the marketplace, and she’s understandably …show more content…
Distracted by his own thoughts, he knocks past Zunaira and Mohsen, who laugh it off. However, another guard hits Mohsen for laughing, and Zunaira for speaking. The guards tell Mohsen that his wife must wait at her parent’s house, where they say they’re headed, and he must attend a sermon. Zunaira sits outside, angry and helpless. She despises her fate as a woman in this society but doesn’t know what to do about it. She can’t help crying. Atiq’s wife gets sicker. She’s falling asleep on the floor and losing her hair. Atiq doesn’t know what to do anymore. Meanwhile, Zunaira won’t remove her veil at home and tells Mohsen she doesn’t want to see him again. She says she wants to leave and he’s devastated. He tries to forcibly remove the veil, but she pushes him away. He stumbles over a carafe and breaks his neck. Zunaira ends up in jail and will be executed that week. Atiq is her jailer. He sees how beautiful she is and comments on it. He doesn’t want her to die, but he can’t help her. Musarrat tells Atiq to escape with Zunaira and be happy, but he can’t leave her. Musarrat says she’ll swap places with Zunaira because she’s dying anyway, and Zunaira gets away. In the scramble, Atiq’s head is cracked open, and everything fades to
The novel Swallows of Kabul by Yasmine Khadar shows how Kabul is under the control of the Taliban’s and how they treat the people of Kabul. This novel illustrates the Islamic culture, and how Kabul has been affected by the invasion of Taliban’s. This book shows the different perspective from different characters; it shows both female and male versions of what it was like to live in Kabul at that time. This book also goes into depth about how women had no voice, and were treated unfairly with little or barely any respect. This novel is very meaningful and it basically paints you a picture of life in Kabul while the Taliban’s are in charge.
It was not only her fault, but Dev as well, since he led her on into falling in love with him. She could try to get to know him and ask him questions. The main character is not trying to get to know his wife at all. Even if he does not have any feelings for her, he could try to learn to love her. It feels like he does not want to try to and needs someone to show him that his wife is very important to him.
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
First of all, in chapter five, Atiq went to the mosque for the Isha Prayer. Then, he left and wandered around the city. Unknowingly, he arrived at the jailhouse. He decided to spend the night there. So, he lit up the lamp and lied down. Suddenly, he got scared to see Nazeesh behind him. As you can see, Atiq met Nazeesh a decade ago, when he was a mufti in Kabul. Then, Nazeesh told the sad story of his old father. He also told him that he wanted to die by walking into the ocean. He was describing the way of his coming death for a long time. Furthermore, after the discussion on his old father and his plan of death, he left that place. After that, Atiq also headed towards his home again. On the way, he started to think about his wife and whether she was continuing her role of sacrificial victim. Finally, he decided to stop her from doing any kinds of works and to treat her much more gently and nicely.
It is clear that in their marriage, her husband makes her decisions on her behalf and she is expected to simply follow blindly. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. The narrator’s feelings of powerlessness and submissive attitudes toward her husband are revealing of the negative effects of gender roles. John’s decision to treat the narrator with rest cure leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her descent into madness is at its peak when she grows tears the wallpaper and is convinced that “[she’s] got out at last, in spite of [John] and Jennie… and [they] can’t put her back!”
what he did, death became his punishment. Not only does he beat her, but he
her husband tries to help her and explain to her what she had done she didn’t want to hear it..
...ess her husband just so happens to die. Her husband has spent most of his nights with the couple’s personal servant, Sarah, who has conceived the children of this man. Ms. Gaudet also dislikes the children solely for the fact that they remind her much of her husband. Manon is soon granted her freedom when her husband is murdered by African- American rebels.
“His people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence-forces that continue to threaten them even today” (Hower). Khaled Hosseini’s novels have brought many of his readers a different perspective of Afghanistan. Many people after reading Hosseini’s books start to notice this place more and have sympathy feelings rather negative views about it. Usually people believe the media’s information that conveys about Afghanistan as a poverty place but does not specify why they live in this conditions and how those states affect their everyday life. In the two novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini wrote the political events that happen in Afghanistan and show how those events affected Afghans’ lives in order to show his personal values of political events and humanitarianism. Khaled Hosseini uses his and other Afghan’s personal experience to send out his mission statement to his readers. Hosseini said that his message was to get his readers be a part of “the mission of [his] foundation to reach out and help people who are exactly like the characters in [his] books” (Wrenn). Across the globe, people started to give a helping hand when they start to read Hosseini’s novels.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. When Amir hears that his father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, is sick and dying, he travels to Pakistan to say his goodbyes. Rahim Khan tells Amir about Hassan’s life and eventual death; the Taliban murdered Hassan while he was living in Amir’s childhood home. As his dying wish, Rahim Khan asks Amir to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage in Afghanistan. Although Amir refuses at first, he thinks about what Rahim Khan had always told him: “There is a way to be good again…” (226), which gives him the incentive he needs to return to Afghanistan and find Sohrab. Hosseini draws parallels between Amir’s relationship with Hassan and Amir’s relationship with Sohrab in order to demonstrate the potential of redemption.
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
Alsana faces the expectation of fulfilling her proper role as the subservient, good muslim wife; however, she subverts this tradition by actively fighting against her husband Samad and, therefore, maintaining her sovereignty. When Alsana expresses her support for her husband’s motion during a PTA meeting, the other wives look “over to her with the piteous saddened smiles they reserved for subjugated Muslim women” (Smith 110). This perception fails to take into account the conflict that occurs under the surface of their seemingly traditional marriage. Before she finally expresses support for him, “Samad pressed Alsana’s hand. She kicked him in the ankle. He stamped on her toe. She pinched his flank. He bent back her little finger and grudgingly raised her right arm while deftly elbowing him in the crotch with her left” (Smith 110). Physical violence is the hallmark of the power struggle within Samad and Alsana’s marriage; it is the manner in which Alsana expresses her defiance to the proper role that it is assumed she should take in her marriage. This physical violence is so common, in fact, that as they violently fight in their garden, their twins calmly watch, placing bets on who will win (Smith 167). This normalization of the violence further highlights how innate it is to their
Mahfouz indulges the reader in the inhabitants inner thoughts and desires; Kirsha's drug addiction and homosexuality; Zaita's sadistic nature; Hamida's untamed ambitions; Alwan's desires for Hamida; Hussain's dissatisfaction. On the other hand, there is Radwan Hussainy-the religious figure; Abbas the niave lover. Thus, Mahfouz created a complete sphere for a society with the good along the bad; with the intangled destinies of the characters in Midaq Alley.
One aspect of the novel that highlights this struggle is its setting, as it takes place during four time periods, each at a different stage in Afghan history. Throughout these unstable decades, the country’s government went through continuous upheavals with each new government advocating different
... Kofi her Master. This shows how husbands are portrayed as masters over their wives in the society. They are seen as the lords of the house and this we clearly see in phase three when he decided to send Anowa away irrespective of all that they have gone through together just because he couldn’t keep up with her any longer. And since Anowa is different from the any other women who will quietly pack and go, she demands a reason for sending her away which made her reveal the secret behind Kofi’s wealth.