ATSS context Flashcards
What was Hosseini’s childhood like?
He was born in a cultivated and cosmopolitan area of Kabul to a mother who taught Persian literature and a father who worked in the foreign ministry encouraging their move to France in 1976 as he was signed to the embassy
What happened in 1980 for Hosseini?
His family applied for political asylum in the United Sates causing them to move to San Jose with no English or possessions, Khaled and his father tended a flea market with other refugees where he felt a drive to succeed
When was the kite runner released?
2003
What did Hosseini learn from his experiences as a good will envoy for the UN refugees agency?
- “Their incredible stories of survival were always with men…part of my inspiration for this novel came from their collective spirit,”
- “Their life stories were truly heartbreaking… found myself thing about those resilient women over and over,”
What position did Hosseini gain in 2006?
He became a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees as sitting displaced persons in war zones but especially from Eastern Chad and Afghanistan
When was A Thousand Splendid Suns published?
May 2007
What are Hosseini’s views on women?
They are denied human rights as they are forced into marriage, imprisonment and prostitution encouraging the novel to take a femininst lens when looking at the endurance of women
What causes abasement of degradation and despair for Hosseini?
An insensitive and authoritarian patriarchal culture inside the home
What percentage of marriages were forced in Afghanistan?
80%
What is the dowry price?
10,000 Afghanis or livestock
Who were the Taliban?
A group of ethnic Pashtuns that emerged in 1994 from former Mujahedeen fighters from the Afghan civil war calling for an Islamic state. They held power from 1996-2001 and again from 2021
What were female school statistics like in 1978?
5000 female teachers in primary schools, 250,000 girls in primary schools and 60% of university students were female
Who were Pashtuns?
They spoke Pashto and made up 2/5rd of the population including Tariq and Rasheed. Most are Sunni Muslims but some were Shia. Pashtuns are more likely to be wealthy and education
What were women banned to do under the Taliban?
- Leave the house without a man
- Showing skin in public
- Involvement in politics
- Access to healthcare through male doctors
- Wash clothes in streams
- Tailor and make clothes for themselves
- Wearing makeup
What was Afghanistan like in the 1960s?
Stable with wealth and the freedom to move from place to place
What were people banned to do under the Taliban?
- Listen to music
- Shave their beards
- Keep, pictures, portraits and pigeons
- Fly kites
- Gambling
- Use of narcotics
- Having British and American hairstyles
- Have interest on loans
- Dance
- Do sorcery
- Play drums
- Not attend mandatory praying times
What did Muhammed believe?
The entire woman is an evil. And what is worse is that it is a necessary evil. Women are like cows, horses and camels for all to be ridden
What was the 2007 interview quote from Hosseini on urban rural divide?
“The real oppression of women in Afghanistan occurs in deeply tribal, conservative rural areas”
When was education made free for 5-15 year olds?
1969 and it catalysed the building of a new high school in Kabul where Dari was the standard language
What did the Taliban ban?
Girls from the age of 10 going to school and Kabul university was closed plus 70 - 80% of schools were destroyed so children were taught at home or in a mosque
What was Herat like?
- Lots of fertile agricultural land but it was densely populated
- Economic capital of Western Afghanistan
- Central government had weak control over the area
- In 1960, the Herat-Kandahor highway was built with Soviet assistance connecting it to Afghanistan
- Soviet airforce bombarded the city in 1979
- Mostly spoke Persian
- Lots of wide main streets, extensive bazaars and industries such as handicrafts, textiles weaving, cotton ginning, flour, oil seed milling and the fur trade
What percentage of Afghan girls were married by 12?
50%
What it the writing style of ATSS?
Verisimilitude, Tragedy and Bildungsroman
What was normalised?
Rape of female servants
