The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini Context Flashcards
Explain Afghanistan’s history and its representation in the events of TKR
The Kite Runner deals with the country of Afghanistan from the 1970s to the year 2002. Like all places, Afghanistan has a long and complicated history, but it came to international attention only after the coup of 1973. In order to orient ourselves, let us look at Afghanistan’s geography. The nation is located in Central Asia and is made up of thirty-four provinces. The country’s capital is Kabul, which is also the capital of the northeast province of the same name. Afghanistan means “Land of Afghan,” Afghan being a name the Pashtun majority used to describe themselves starting before the year 1000. It is bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and for a short distance, China.
From 1933-1973, Afghanistan was a monarchy ruled by King Zahir Shah. On July 17, 1973, when the king was on vacation, Mohammad Daoud Khan seized power. Mohammad Daoud Khan was Zahir Shah’s cousin and a former Prime Minister of Afghanistan. The military coup was nearly bloodless, but as we see through Amir’s story, it was still a frightening time for the people of Kabul who heard rioting and shooting in the streets. For six years, Mohammad Daoud Khan was President and Prime Minister of Afghanistan. Then, on April 27, 1978, he was violently overthrown by the PDPA, People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Daoud was killed in the coup along with most of his family. Even though Afghanistan had long insisted on maintaining its independence from Russia, the PDPA was a Communist party and therefore held close ties to the Soviet Union.
The PDPA instituted many political and social reforms in Afghanistan, including abolishing religious and traditional customs. These reforms incensed groups of Afghans who believed in adherence to traditional and religious laws. These factions began to challenge the government so rigorously that in 1979, the Soviet Army entered Afghanistan, beginning an occupation that would last a decade. This is the historical point in The Kite Runner when Baba and Amir leave Afghanistan. Throughout the ten years of Soviet occupation, internal Muslim forces put up a resistance. Farid and his father are examples in The Kite Runner of these mujahedins or men engaged in war on the side of Islam. The United States was among the countries that supported the resistance, because of its own anti-Soviet policies. When the Soviet Troops finally withdrew in 1989, Afghanistan remained under PDPA for three more years. Then in 1992, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore Soviet support for the government, the mujahedin finally won Afghanistan and converted it to an Islamic State.
In the years following Soviet withdrawal, there was a great deal of infighting among rival militias, making everyday life in Afghanistan unsafe. In The Kite Runner, Rahim Khan describes the fear in Kabul during this time. He remembers, “The infighting between the factions was fierce and no one knew if they would live to see the end of the day. Our ears became accustomed to the rumble of gunfire, our eyes familiar with the sight of men digging bodies out of piles of rubble. Kabul in those days … Was as close as you could get to that proverbial hell on earth.” Then in 1996, the Taliban took control of Kabul. After so many years of insecurity and violence, the people welcomed the takeover. Rahim Khan remembers, “… We all celebrated in 1996 when the Taliban rolled in and put an end to the daily fighting.” The Taliban were a group of Pashtun supremacists who banded together and took almost complete control of the country. Despite their warm initial reception, they soon made life in Afghanistan dangerous again. Being Sunni fundamentalists supremacists, they systematically massacred Shiites including the Hazara people. They also enacted fundamentalist laws, most famously those banning music and dance, and those severely restricting women’s rights. In The Kite Runner, we see how the Taliban used fear and violence to control the people of Afghanistan, for example at the frequent executions in Ghazi Stadium.
After the events of September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban. The end of The Kite Runner occurs in 2002, when a provisional government was in place. It was not until 2004 that the current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was elected. Today, there are countless Afghan refugees living in other parts of the world, just like Amir and his family. For those Afghans living in Afghanistan, life is still dangerous. In the South, conflict continues to rage on and the Taliban have managed to reemerge. According to Amnesty International’s 2007 report, violence and human rights abuses are still a common reality in Afghanistan due to weak governance.
Explain events following the USA’s overthrow of the Taliban in 2001
• After the events of September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban.
o The end of The Kite Runner occurs in 2002, when a provisional government was in place. It was not until 2004 that the current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was elected. Today, there are countless Afghan refugees living in other parts of the world, just like Amir and his family. For those Afghans living in Afghanistan, life is still dangerous. In the South, conflict continues to rage on and the Taliban have managed to re-emerge. According to Amnesty International’s 2007 report, violence and human rights abuses are still a common reality in Afghanistan due to weak governance.
Explain Hosseini’s personal life and its impact on the novel
o Born in Kabul, Afghanistan 1965, oldest of five children
o Kabul was a cosmopolitan city at the time as described in the book
o Western culture, including movies and literature, mixed with Afghan traditions, such as winter kite fighting
o Lavish parties were normal at the Hosseini family home in the upper middle class neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan
o Hosseini’s father was a diplomat with the Afghan foreign ministry, his mother taught Farsi and history at a local high school for girls
o In 1970, the Foreign Ministry sent his father to Iran, the family spent a few years there, Hosseini taught a Hazara man who worked as a cook for the family how to read and write
o By this time Khaled Hosseini was already reading Persian poetry as well as American novels, and he began writing his own short stories
Explain the movements of Hosseini during his childhooed
o They returned to Kabul in 1973, the year Mohammad Daoud Khan, overthrew his cousin, Zahir Shah, the Afghan King in a coup d’état
o The Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini’s to Paris in 1976
o Though they hoped to return to Afghanistan in 1980 that was not possible because of the Soviet military invasion
o Instead the Hosseini’s moved to San Jose California, after they were granted political asylum in the United States
o Khaled Hosseini went on to graduate high school in 1984 and attended Santa Clara University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1988
o In 1993 he earned his Medical degree from University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and in 1996 he completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai medical Centre in Los Angeles, making him a doctor
Explain the impact of Hosseini’s personal experience on his representation of Afghanistan
• While Hosseini acknowledges most of his first novel is largely fictional, he was inspired by the Afghanistan he knew as a child
o Like Amir, Hosseini enjoyed western films and kite fighting
o He also lived in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan that had not yet been ravaged by Soviet invasion and subsequent Taliban rule
o In a 2003 interview with Newline, Hosseini said the passages in the book most resembling his life are those of Amir and Baba as immigrants in the US
o When the Hosseinis arrived in California, they had difficulty adjusting to the new culture, and for a short time his family lived on welfare
o He also remembers the local flea market where he and his father worked briefly among other Afghans
Explain how Hosseini’s literature has changed his personal life
• Khaled Hosseini’s literature also changed his personal life
o After nearly twenty-seven years, he returned to Afghanistan to see what had become of his country and his people
o Like Amir, he was able to find his father’s old home, but war had destroyed the place where he grew up
o His efforts to bring attention to the plight of refugees earned him the Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Refugee Agency in 2006, and he became a U.S. goodwill envoy to the organization
