Reflections on Misconceptions about Afghanistan
For the last few years and specifically after the 9/11 tragedy, my thoughts have turned towards Afghanistan, a country which I have never really paid much attention to. I began to hear more in the news and to read more in the newspapers about Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. I even watched a movie called Osama about women’s issues in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, politics is not really my thing.
So when I went to the library looking for books to satisfy my curiosity, my eyes lead me to more culturally – and socially-oriented books and novels about Afghanistan. One specific novel caught my attention. I had never heard of the title or of the author before. However, I was delighted with the idea that the author, Khaled Houseini, is Afghani, and that the book, The Kite Runner, talks about a special friendship between two young Afghani boys.
Khaled Houseini: From Kabul to Kite Running
Khaled Houseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, where he spent his childhood. At that time, Kabul was a city that attracted and opened itself to the whole world; with movie theaters showing international films, universities, schools and cultural centers offering education for both boys and girls.
Khaled Houseini’s family mingled with poets, writers, diplomats, journalists, doctors, and lawyers: his father was a diplomat working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his mother taught Persian language and history in an important high school in Kabul.
In September 1980, Houseini’s family moved to and settled in San Jose, California where Khaled continued his studies to become a doctor. He began to write his first magnificent novel, The Kite Runner, in March 2001. In 2003, The Kite Runner was published and became an international bestseller, selling more than 4 million copies in 3 years, published in 40 countries, and translated to many languages. In 2007, the novel was transformed into a movie.
A Story of Hope, Faith and Salvation
The Kite Runner is derived from the core proceedings of Afghan history, the stories of many Afghan families, and the tales of friendship, hope and faith, amid the suffering of the Afghan people whose salvation was to be found in love.
The book tells the story of friendship and betrayal and a sense of guilt and sacrifice between 2 boys, Amir and Hassan, coming from 2 different worlds and who grew up together in the city of Kabul in the ’60s and ’70s.
It is a story of an intimate friendship between Amir with Hassan, a thread that pulls the whole book together. However, the fragility of their friendship, symbolized by the kites the boys fly side by side, was put to test when they started observing and noticing their different and contrasting lifestyles.
Contrast, Conflict and the Final Flight to Safety
Amira’s father was rich and held important status in the society, while Hassan was the son of the family’s custodian. Amir came from the Pashtun, a Sunni tribe, whereas Hassan was from the Hazara, a Shiite tribe of ethnic minority in Afghanistan.
The lives of the boys were transformed and their fates intertwined. The tragedy came when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and Amir fled with his father and family from the country to start a new life in California. Amir fled from his past as well, yet he was not able to leave the memory of Hassan behind him and it came back to haunt him after several years, when he received news of Hassan’s own son.
The Kite Runner is a story of friendship and betrayal and of the price of loyalty; it’s a story about relationships on different levels: between friends, between father and son, and between man and his home country.