Faizabad Harvest 1980 Essay

In Part II of the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini uses war, communion, and violence as symbols to portray how those most affected by war are the innocent. In addition to war and communion, Hosseini utilizes violence to depict the harmful impact that war has on innocent civilians. The first instance of violence in the novel demonstrates how a government uses propaganda as a tool to deface its people. While she looks at newspaper clippings under mammy’s bed, “One photo, . . . , showed a man in a long white coat handing a lollipop to a legless little boy. The caption below the photo read: Children are the intended victims of Soviet land mine campaign.” (109). The article from this newspaper displays the extensive violent effects of the war in Afghanistan.

Throughout his novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, Khaled Hosseini explores the stories of different young girls in Afghanistan, each with their own unique story. One of the main divisions between each was their level of education and their families view on the necessity of having kids in school. It seemed that there was a direct parallel between a child’s access to education and their goals and initiative for the rest of their life. There were also strong divisions between adults and their views in educating females in school. Some parents were very open and enthusiastic about their daughters receiving an education while others thought they belonged elsewhere and going to school was a waste of time. The Taliban was a strong opponent to young girls and their educations and did everything in their power to prevent girls from going to school or becoming at all independent. Examining the importance of education from the perspectives of the Taliban, adults, and young girls in Kabul at this time creates an image of suppression and brings into question the motives of the Taliban’s reform rules and whether or not they could have been meant to distinguish the threat of educated generations weakening their power.

The use of child soldiers have become a normal contribution to armies, especially in countries such as Africa. Although, countries such as Afghanistan, India, and Libya have been using child soldiers since 2011. According to “Children in Conflict: Child Soldiers,” there has been 36 countries involved since 1998. Something needs to be done about this issue due to the fact that thousands of

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

Suicide bombers, rebel groups, minefield clearers, and soldiers are words used to describe these children in a terrible situation. In places like Afghanistan, Iran, and Guantanamo Bay children as young as 5 years old are apprehended from their families, and are taken to army camps to fight against the U.S-backed government. These children are so innocent, but many think that they need to be arrested for what they are doing. Instead of playing on a playground with their families they are brainwashed, drugged, forced to kill, and poisoned with alcoholic beverages.

This novel was a very enlightening, firsthand account of the atrocities of civil war that not only affect many countries and their citizens, but especially children. Ishmael Beah was separated from his family at age 12 because he and his brother were away from their home in the small country of West Africa known as Sierra Leone, performing in a rap group with friends, when their home village was attacked. Ishmael, his brother and their friends wandered from village to village in search of food and shelter among the confusion, violence, and uncertainty of the war. Ishmael’s recounting of his experiences is emotionally disheartening and hard for someone like me to truly fathom, but yet I do know that these atrocities exist in our modern world.

The issue of child soldiery is a social issue that plagues society on a global scale. For instance, The Global Report 2008 which was edited by UNICEF and Child Soldiers Global Institution reported that 19 countries and territories employed children in government forces as well as non-state armed groups. Some countries include Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, and Somalia (Deak, 2013, p. 1). It is impossible to state the exact number of child soldiers around the world; however, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations estimate that that there are about 250,000 to 300,000 child soldiers (Szijj, 2010, p.4) It is evident that that child soldiery is an epidemic thus, I will investigate what social and political factors are responsible

The use of children in the terrorist group, Islamic State in Iraq exposes these child soldiers to extreme violence and exploitation. Children are kidnapped and sent to the military training camps, where they practice beheading with dolls. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child claimed the militants force kids into service as suicide bombers. Research with former child soldier, commanders will supply child soldiers with marijuana and

Child Soldiers across the world are being forced to fight against their will in order to survive. In recent years, “The number of children affiliated with fighting has more than doubled.” (Geert Cappelave) Not only are these kids sent to war, they are abused, sexually and mentally.

The Kony 2012 video viewed by nearly 100 million people stunned the world and brought back into focus the egregious use of children as combatants. The blatant terror and savagery taking place in a moral vacuum of sorts, where thousands of children are maimed, raped, killed and abused is a microcosm of a problem afflicting many parts of the world. It even spurred some U.S. Senators to act upon the decades of crimes against humanity committed by the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern

Pope John Paul II once said “We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism.” (Paul, 2000) This speech goes with all wars that occurred in the past and present. This synopsis will focus on the effects of war on children and the different ways they survived through it. It will compare the children of the Holocaust and the children of the war on terrorism. War has a great effect on children and can harm them socially, mentally, and physically. Survival of the fittest differs vastly between these children and the wars they are going through.

War can be seen from different perspectives but can also be defined as a battle against an opponent. War also impacts people differently based on the events taking place. Traumas from being a victim or perpetuator can affect the individuals’ involved emotionally, mentally and physically. Hence, the conflicts can alter life drastically. When we look at the battle, we tend to disregard the effect of the perpetrator also known as the soldier who fought in the war and the victims who experienced the tragedy as bystanders, instead the focus is more on the mass destruction of bombings in communities. In the book “Maus” by Art Speigelman and film “The Best Years of Our Life” by William Wyler, the narrator takes us into a world of war where the behavioral changes in the victims is brought up as a result of the war that takes place. The novel and film display’s another point view which allows the viewers to see the true experience that individuals go through instead of just physical attacks on the environment during war.

Recruitment and use of children in war is one of the six grave violations against children in situations of conflict. Currently, there are over 300,000 child soldiers being exploited in battle, while six million have been gravely injured or are now permanently disabled. Additionally, there are about 20 million boys and girls that have been displaced and are refugees in surrounding countries due to the gross violations of conflict and human rights. The role of children in armed conflict is not restricted to direct participation in warfare, but includes boys and girls in support functions that ultimately are a bigger risk and hardship than combat.

When one discusses the Arab-Israeli conflict, the individual notices that there are different narratives based on the time period and location of where the situation is being addressed. Generally, the narrative points out the plight that civilians are subject and have been subject to in the past, and uses it to justify their future actions against the opposing side. However, for Palestinians and Israelis, the narrative differs because they have been in such close proximity with each other, and they are the main protagonists of the conflict. “On the Attitude Toward Children in Wartime” by Dahlia Ravikovitch is a poem that focuses on the topic of children in wartime, specifically Palestinian children who were still living in the land. In the

Our world ignores the issues and epidemics caused by war. Innocent people all over lose their lives due to combat even when they do not involve themselves in it. Some are even forcibly recruited and must surrender to orders given to them no matter how gruesome. An article titled “Children in Somalia Facing War Crimes,” a speech given by former president Jimmy Carter, and a Pulitzer Prize nominated photograph taken by Tyler Hicks show evidence of the subject at hand.