Essay on A Woman's Place: The Kite Runner

In Afghanistan, Women’s rights were very denied and completely dismissed. Women were treated horribly. They were beaten, abused verbally, and even killed. Under the rule of the Taliban, women were better off staying in the safety of their own homes.

Violence, war, discrimination, and poverty: these issues have long been a part of Afghanistan’s history. Even though things in Afghanistan are getting better, war fills the country, and women and children have to learn to endure abuse, caused by men and the Taliban; they also learn to endure poverty. Considering this, it is no wonder why Afghanistan is in the terrible position it is in now. Many Afghan cities like Kabul are filled with things like violence and discrimination, and the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini takes place in Kabul. This book follows the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they suffer pain and discrimination received from the Taliban and their

Since the Taliban have been overthrown in 2001, life for women has vastly improved throughout

The Taliban’s brutality is completely unimaginable. When the Taliban first arrived, a woman was beaten for not wearing a full chadri, though she wore modest clothing and a large headscarf. The Taliban soldiers showed no sympathy for this woman and beat her regardless of her pleas. In itself, this scene shows the Taliban’s twisted mindset: it is wrong for a woman to lack complete covering, but to beat this woman is moral and acceptable. The officials wanted her to fear breaking their rules and show that there were no exceptions; Afghans must follow the Taliban's regulations or be severely punished.

Before the Taliban, life was adequately normal for Afghan women. When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan women’s rights were disrespected and the Afghan women were disregarded. Once the Taliban fled, the women of Afghanistan started to regain their rights and are acknowledged for their power today. The Taliban abused women physically and mentally by whipping them, hosting executions, and brutalizing their rights; today about 67% of girls living in Afghanistan still do not go to

Khaled Hosseini, the author of the novel “The Kite Runner,” illustrates a story of a young Afghan boy who struggles to win his father’s approval, but also struggles internally to do what is morally right and what the society around him has deemed right. This novel combines works of fiction and as well as historical events to tell the story of how a young boy matures into a man and his journey for forgiveness and redemption to clear his conscious of the mistakes he made long ago. The author also includes an abundance of accurate culture aspects that explain the reasoning the behind the characters actions as well as the themes of the novel to the audience for a more clear understanding. If the audience studies the aspects of Afghan culture mentioned

Before the Taliban came into power in 1996, laws in Afghanistan were remarkably different. In 1964, “a new constitution [created] a modern democracy with free elections, equal rights, freedom of speech, universal suffrage, and [allowed] women to enter into politics” (“Timeline Women’s Rights in Afghanistan”). Women’s rights began to improve further during the late 1970’s. During 1978, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan took over the government resulting in the separation of government and religion, banning burqas, requiring education for girls, abolishing walwar, which is a sum of money that the groom pays to the father of his bride, and lastly, raising the minimum age of marriage to 16. During PDPA rule, the government was highly

The entire female population in Afghanistan is directly affected by the societal prejudice against them. There are so many restrictions and limitations towards women that they can be charged with a crime that harmed nobody and nothing at all. The male population is willing to find anything they can to use against these innocent women. Women deserve to at possess the minimal human rights that they should have been granted at birth. In order to make this happen, these women need

This site will be very helpful because it answers my central question, “What are the human rights for a woman in Afghanistan?”. The taliban has had a crisis against women for years. Article 27 of the 1977 Constitution stated, “The entire people of Afghanistan, women and men, without discrimination have equal rights and obligations before the law.” However, the taliban has continued to ignore this rule and mistreated women. In 1992, women in Afghanistan were required to cover their heads, legs and arms. Since the mid 1990’s, the status of women has changed dramatically under the rule of the taliban. This site gives more vast information about this topic and will also help me answer subsidiary questions. I will be using this site for most of my iTCHI

Afghanistan’s people have faced a number of frightening issues over the years. They have suffered through poverty, unemployment, a mediocre educational system, and most devastatingly, a long period of war. And though the whole country is affected by these conflicts, the many issues Afghanistan faces are especially unforgiving towards their women. While men are treated with the utmost respect, women are often treated with disregard of any basic human decency. In Afghanistan, women’s rights are severely restricted, and it’s sickening to see it still going on. Women, no matter where they live, should have the same rights as

Paraphrase 1: Despite strict social restrictions under Taliban rule, such as women being prohibited from holding professional jobs and unable to leave their homes without a male chaperone, Afghan women remained resilient in the face of adversary by developing underground private enterprises and social programs, including secret technology schools, Community Forum programs, and individual textile businesses (Lemmon 18).

In his realistic fiction work, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini effectively incorporates the long and complicated historical aspects of Kabul, which he connects to shape the behavior of the characters in the story. The history of Kabul, as presented in the novel, revolves predominantly around the Islamic society, therefore, it interrelates the social and cultural impacts, in turn shaping the psychological elements of the plot.The Kite Runner approaches Afghanistan over the course of approximately 30 years, from the 1970s to 2002, and showcases the drastic transformation of the landscape in Kabul as well as it's overall societal values. The narrator begins with a flashback of the cosmopolitan Kabul of 1970. In context, Afghanistan is an Islamic

Before the Taliban rule, women were protected under the law and were afforded rights in Afghan society. Abdur Rahman Khan, who ruled from 1880 to 1901, instituted several reforms for women because he wanted to consolidate the nation into a centralized state. Two of the changes he made for women were that he abolished the custom of forcing a woman to marry her deceased husband’s next of kin and raised the age of marriage. Women received the right to vote in the 1920s and the Afghan constitution provided equality for women beginning in the 1960s.

Prior to Taliban rule, women had significant rights and educational and professional opportunities. As early as 1920’s women were granted the right to vote and equal rights for men and women that would be undermined by later successions of power. In 1964, a new constitution creates a modern democracy with free elections, equal rights, freedom of speech, universal suffrage, and allows women to enter into politics. The 1970’s under Soviet supported PDPA government are characterized by further liberalization reforms such as: separation of religion and state, banning burquas, raising the legal age of marriage to 16, requires education for girls, and abolishes walwar. During the 1980’s insurrection groups against the Soviet government threaten liberal reforms. By late 1988 the Soviet Union retreats its forces and Afghanistan is torn into civil war between tribal leaders and mujahideen leading up to the Taliban’s takeover in 1996.

For almost three decades Afghanistan has been the setting of ruthless wars. The Soviet occupation and the Taliban takeover has not only gridlocked country socially, it has also caused it to regress. Prior to the occupation of these treacherous groups, Afghanistan had a relatively liberal outlook, with a hopeful progression of women’s rights. More specifically; “Afghan women made up 50% of government workers, 70% of school teachers, and 40% of doctors in Kabul.” In recent years the public life of women has been completely effaced due to the effects of war and the Taliban regime. They are isolated, confined to their homes and masked with an all-encompassing burqa; prisoners in a country they call their “home”. In the country one calls