The Kite Runner

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Culture

"Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. If you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. I never slept the night before the tournament. I'd roll from side to side, make shadow animals on the wall, even sit on the balcony in the dark, a blanket wrapped around me. I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches the night before a major battle. And that wasn't so far off. In Kabul, fighting kites was a little like going to war"
(Hosseini, The Kite Runner, P.43)

Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner derives its name from an ancient Afghan hobby of dueling with kites. Kite flying involves mid-air fighting between kites. The flyers try to take down their rivals kite, no matter if they have bloody hands from it or not. They will do whatever they have to in order to win. Amir wanted to win so badly because then he would finally feel like his father was happy about something he had accomplished. Kite flying can be compared to the foreign influence that was in his country. The kite flyer had to have training, intelligence, and even diligence.

“The Kite Runner,” has a lot of symbols that relate back to its history over the years. Khaled talks about how things used to be for children growing up there; it was a pleasant experience for them, but as the years went by, Afghanistan was turned upside-down. In 1992 ethno-religious wars broke out in Kabul and other cities. Then in 1994, the Taliban emerged banning kite flying and other activities because they didn’t want people to feel happy anymore, so if they felt like they were or were evening doing something wrong, they would kill them. Afghanistan was no longer the beautiful, peaceful country that it used to be.

Afghanistan is mostly an Islam country, so throughout the story, Amir tries to figure out what he believes. He doesn't know if there is a God, but he does know that it many situations, like the death of his father, God was the only one that he could turn to in times of need. He is not the traditional Islamic believer because he does not pray every day, but he stills considers himself to be of the Islamic faith because of the tradition that it is in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, the woman is supposed to be the person that takes care of the household chores and raise the children. She is expected to respect her husband and all other male figures in her life. The male is the head of the house, so what he says goes. He consideres himself to be in charge because he brings all the money in. This isn't just in certain households in Afghanistan, this is considered tradition. Even though most women are expected to act this way in Afghanistan, Amir doesn't make his wife follow tradition, just because everyone else is doing it.



Historical Background

Before the 16th century, the Safavids ruled in western Afghanistan, the Hazara ethnic group was Sunni but as a matter of pressure and time they converted to the Shia faith. (Adamec, 2003; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997). The Hazaras are speculated to have descended from the contingents ('hazar' meaning thousand or regiment) left behind by the Mongolian quests into Afghanistan (Adamec, 2003; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997).

Another Shia group is the Qizilbash, which is part of the Safavid group. The Safavid kings were made up of 70,000 horsemen. The Qizilbash, were Azerbaijani-Turks of Shia faith who spoke Farsi. The Qizilbash came to Afghanistan when Nadir Shah Afshar, created the Kandahar and Kabul garrisons in 1738-39. The garrison consisted of about 12,000 families (Adamec, 2003; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997).

Farsi. The Qizilbash came to Afghanistan when Nadir Shah Afshar, created the Kandahar and Kabul garrisons in 1738-39. The garrison consisted of about 12,000 families (Adamec, 2003; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997).

Nadir Shah Afshar, was assassinated, his general Ahmad Shah Durrani, a Sadozai nobleman, became Afghanistan's first formal king in 1747. Ahmad Shah Durrani continued to hold the Qizilbash as advisors and ghulam khana (royal personal bodyguards). When Ahmad Shah Durrani's son, Timur Shah, moved the capital from Kandahar to Kabul, he brought with him more Qizilbash families to Chindawal (Adamec, 2003; Ghobar, 1967; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997).

All-immediate descendants of Ahmad Shah Durrani left the Hazaras in relative peace except Shah Kamran's attack on Hazarajat in 1847. A distant cousin of Barakzai clan took power; he was not sympathetic to the Shias and exploited Sunni-Shia differences. Amir Dost Mohammad aligned the Sunnis and Qizilbash to the detriment of the Hazaras. (Adamec, 2003; Gregorian, 1969; Noelle, 1997). In recent times, the Taliban referred to their leader as Mullah Omar.

In 1891 Amir Abdur Rahman continued his conquest of Hazarajat. the Hazara tribe was destroyed, Hazara personal property and land was runined, and Hazaras were sold as slaves in Kabul. Then there was a huge migration of Hazaras to Quetta and Mashad, which is currently Pakistan and Iran.

While Shah Amanullah outlawed slavery, still after his 1929 departure from Afghanistan until the 1970s, when Amir grows up in Kabul, Hazaras are still treated as slaves.  

Through symbolic structure, Hosseini has to deal with what culture thinks of him. The book reveals that Hazaras and Shias could never move up the hierarchy unless they denied their identity or became wealthy. It was not just the Shias and Hazaras but also the Kuchis, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and 'atrafiyan or deehatiyan' (rural dwellers) no matter if they were Pashtu-speaking, Panjshiris, or Badakhshis.

Afghanistan's history has not only affected their country, but the whole world.

Ten years ago this year, America was put at a standstill when a terrorist attack happened at the world trade centers in New York City. Many people wondered why, why force your anger on us, when this is a battle that you have to fight out in your own country. The Taliban didn’t want just control over Afghanistan, they wanted to control the whole world, and they knew that if they could somehow ruin the American spirit, then they would rule the world.  That day definitely did make an impact on our nation; however, we weren’t going to give up because we knew we had to fight for all the people that died on that tragic day. So America declared a war on terror in 2001, and we haven’t left that area of the world since. We want them to know that we have fought for our freedom and we aren’t going to let some group ruin it.

Less than a week ago, our nation found out that the leader of many terrorist organizations and what is said to be the leader of the terrorist attacks that happened on 9/11 was found and killed. In many ways we should rejoice as a county, but individually, I don’t know whether to be happy or sad for all of the people that had to suffer because of this man. Yes, Osama did horrible things, however he is a human being. A death is a death, and it makes me sad to think that someone died and we are rejoicing about it. I do believe I would feel different about this topic if I lost a member of my family in the terrorist attacks; however I know that many people’s lives were ruined that day. So I feel sad for everyone who was affected, even Osama.