What type of city was kabul according to hosseini

In writing The Kite Runner , Hosseini had a clear political intent: to humanise a region, for western readers, which is either remote or clouded by negative media coverage. Significantly Hosseini chooses to make his narrator a writer who himself has a political and personal mission — a mission to tell the truth about himself and his country.

Central to Hosseini's post-modern novel is the division between the two factions of Afghan society: the politically and financially superior Sunni Pashtuns and the oppressed Shi'a Hazaras. The two protagonists, Amir and Hassan, represent the two different ethnic groups and the different lives lived by those with and those without political power. This inequality is initially foregrounded through the characters' homes, Amir's 'mansion' and Hassan's 'mud hut' , but is also present in the representation of everyday life for Afghan people in the early chapters of the novel.

The 'school text books' Amir reads barely mention the history of the Hazaras showing how seriously they are marginalised, invisible to an extent. Hazaras are also subjected to terrible insults such as 'mice-eating, flat-nosed, load carrying donkeys' which is aimed at Hassan in the streets of Kabul and reflects the oppressive attitudes of many Afghan Pashtuns. Indeed, the divisions are so deep that even after the Soviet invasion the Hazaras are still scorned by their compatriots, and after the rise of the Taliban the divisions are intensified because the Taliban are largely Pashtuns.

Late in the novel when Amir returns to Afghanistan to try to atone for his sins, the otherwise positively characterised Farid asks why Amir 'came all the way from America for…a Shi'a? Other power struggles and political tensions are also important in the narrative. The Soviet invasion, the rise of the Taliban, Amir's feelings of inadequacy with regards to his father, Soraya's rebellion against her parents because of her having lost 'the genetic lottery' and Amir's physical fight with Assef for Sohrab, are all examples of conflicts between those with power and those without.

In this way, Hosseini comments on gender politics, class and ethnicity by his representation of contemporary Afghan society. The central event of the novel is the rape of Hassan, an atrocity that results from his loyalty to his Pashtun friend Amir Assef calls Hassan a 'loyal dog'. This event which Amir witnesses and about which he does nothing haunts him for life.

Assef's brutal actions on a domestic scale reflect the later, historically grounded, 'massacre of the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif'. As a child, Amir knows he is complicit in the obscene bullying of Hassan, his friend, but at first refuses to acknowledge his guilt, instead compounding Hassan's misery by heaping on him further cruelty. As he moves into adulthood, carrying the burden of his sins, Amir realises he can only gain redemption by recognising his abuse of power, atoning for his wrongdoing and by rescuing and loving Hassan's son Sohrab as a person in his own right, distinct from his ethnicity.

Amir's learning — and courage perhaps - is reflected in his angry outburst to General Taheri at the end of the novel: 'you will never again refer to him as Hazara boy in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab'. The domestic and personal story of The Kite Runner i s sharpened by the backdrop of political turmoil. He also remembers the local flea market where he and his father worked briefly among other Afghans, just as Amir and Baba did in the book.

Although the period of adjustment passed and Khaled Hosseini became a successful practicing doctor in , he felt deeply influenced by what he recalled of his homeland, and he began writing "The Kite Runner" in March Two years later, in the midst of the U. In , it was made into a feature film. The movie encountered some problems. The children who played Hassan, Amir and Sohrab, and a fourth boy with a smaller role, had to be moved out of the country.

After nearly twenty-seven years, he returned to Afghanistan to see what had become of his country and his people.

His efforts to bring attention to the plight of refugees earned him the Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Refugee Agency in , and he became a U.

It was during a trip as an envoy that he was inspired to start his own non-profit group. He created the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, which funds projects to empower vulnerable groups in Afghanistan, such as women and children.

That's proving to be prophetically true. Who are the Taliban and how did they take control of Afghanistan so swiftly? President Biden gave a speech the other day, and I guess I would ask him: What is the legacy of the last 20 years?

What was all this for? On the American side, the country's back in the hands of the very people that we went there to throw out. On the Afghan side, thousands and thousands of civilians died, so many people became displaced, so many villages were bombed, so many people suffered in the hope that the country might have a better future.

Now, they're at the mercy of a group that the US itself has designated as a terrorist group, who enforced a real rule of terror on the Afghan people in the mid '90s and made Afghanistan into a safe haven for terrorist groups.

So it's a very bitter pill to swallow. And from the Afghan perspective, it's hard to blame them for feeling betrayed. What responsibility does the world now have to Afghanistan and its people? We can expect displacement of Afghans over the coming days, weeks and months. Already there's a humanitarian crisis inside Afghanistan.

In these early days, it's absolutely essential that aid workers and aid organizations like UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and others have access to those people to deliver lifesaving services. And I think I would call on all countries to keep their borders open and to welcome Afghan refugees who are fleeing 40 years of violence and persecution. This moment is not the time to give up on Afghanistan. It is not the time to turn your backs on Afghans and Afghan refugees.

The United States owes the Afghans -- those who are left behind, who aligned themselves with US objectives, who believed in US initiatives, who at the risk of their own lives worked alongside us and other foreign troops. We mustn't turn our back on those people. What do you make of the Taliban saying that their rule this time will be different? My feelings on that echo that of many other Afghans.

I'm deeply skeptical. We feel that that Taliban have to prove it with deeds and not with words. The world's attention is on the Taliban right now, so it's not quite surprising that they're saying that they're going to respect human rights and that they're going to respect women's rights.

They're very careful to say "within the boundaries of Islamic law," however, which leaves that entirely open to interpretation. Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near the Zanbaq Square in Kabul on August 16, Your books introduced so many readers around the world to Afghanistan. To what extent can fiction foster an understanding of a country's culture and its people?

It's a window into it. It's one person's experience. I've been very blessed that people have read my books and have formed a personal connection with the plight of Afghans and with with Afghanistan as a land itself, because for many, many years Afghanistan has primarily been associated with the Taliban and the war, terrorism and drug trade. I hope people walk away from my books with a more nuanced and complicated understanding of Afghanistan.

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What is the nature of the division between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims?