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Khaled Hosseini's acclaimed debut novel The Kite Runner has sold millions of copies and inspired a popular film, but the book has been met with several challenges since its 2003 release. In 2017, it was the fourth most challenged book according to the American Library Association. It was challenged for sexual violence, and Islamophobia fueled some challenges, with would-be censors arguing that the novel would inspire terrorism and promoted Islam. The book also appeared on the top ten lists for 2014 (offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence), 2012 (homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit), and 2008 (offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group).

The protagonist of The Kite Runner is Amir, the son of a wealthy businessman, who befriends Hassan, the son of one of his father's servants, in 1970s Afghanistan. The story transitions in time between pre-revolution Afghanistan and the 1990s, when Amir, now a successful novelist in the United States, learns that Hassan and his wife have been killed by the Taliban. As Amir sets out to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son Sohrab, he contends with the repercussions of his childhood betrayal of Hassan. Since publication, the book has been embraced in educational settings as a way to address the abuse of power, themes of redemption, the immigrant experience, and Afghani history.

In 2017, The Kite Runner was notably challenged in two locales. The book was suddenly pulled from the curriculum district-wide in Gilbert, Arizona, when the Hugley Unified School District informed teachers that the book would not longer be used in classrooms or for independent reading shortly before Grade 10 honors English students were set to begin studying it. A reason wasn't given, and the school claimed that it was because the book hadn't been properly vetted, but student journalists determined otherwise, learning that the book had been approved and in use for five years already. The book did not undergo district review processes.

Later in the year, a school board member in Fishers, Indiana, vocally protested the inclusion of The Kite Runner in AP Literature and Composition courses after her daughter had been assigned the novel. Unlike Gilbert, the district undertook the appropriate challenge and review policies. The Kite Runner has also been challenged in North Carolina and Wisconsin, and it was recently red-flagged in California in violation of state law.
Find more of ALA OIF's top ten challenged and banned lists here.

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Khaled Hosseini's acclaimed debut novel The Kite Runner has sold millions of copies and inspired a popular film, but the book has been met with several challenges since its 2003 release. In 2017, it was the fourth most challenged book according to the American Library Association.

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In March 2001, Khaled Hosseini started writing "The Kite Runner," his semiautobiographical saga about coming of age in Afghanistan and coming to America after the Soviet invasion -- and returning to Afghanistan after the rise of the Taliban.

Six months into his work on the book, the events of 9/11 occurred. The times were cataclysmic, but for Hosseini, a practicing physician with an unpublished manuscript, the timing was propitious.

It was the year many Americans first learned where Kabul, the country's capital, was and who the Taliban were. To a great extent, Americans had pictured Afghanistan as a land of cave-dwelling terrorists. "The Kite Runner," which became an international bestseller -- translated into 40 languages, it has sold 8 million copies worldwide -- helped fill in that very rudimentary picture. The book has served to bridge the cultural divide and surmount headlines with its story of a young boy contending with political and personal turmoil.

The first novel published in English by an author from Afghanistan, "The Kite Runner" is the story of Amir, the young son of a well-to-do Afghan diplomat in 1970s Kabul. Amir's close but ambivalent friendship with -- and lifelong shame regarding -- his Hazara servant Hassan is at the heart of the book. It is a relationship that haunts Amir from Kabul to California, where Amir and his father move after the Soviets invade Afghanistan.

Like Amir, Hosseini grew up in an affluent household in Kabul in the 1970s, though the author also spent part of his childhood in Tehran, Iran, and Paris. In 1980, he and his family were granted political asylum in the United States and moved to San Jose, where he still lives with his wife and two children. It wasn't until 2003, with his book in production, that the author returned to Afghanistan to visit the land of his birth and retrace his character's footsteps.

While Hosseini drew much of the book -- its cultural richness, accounts of ethnic conflicts, even its evocation of annual children's kite contests -- from his own experience, Amir's harrowing story is fiction. Beautifully written, startling and heart wrenching, "The Kite Runner" is also an episodic page turner. It's a winning recipe for book club consumption -- and film adaptation.

Now, as he anticipates the premiere of the movie version of "The Kite Runner," the 42-year-old author, who no longer practices medicine and whose second novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," was published in May, talks about Americans' positive response to his book and some Afghans' outrage at the movie, which includes a 30-second scene depicting the rape of a boy, played by a 12-year-old Afghan, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada. (Mahmidzada's parents said they had no knowledge of this plot point when they agreed to let their son act in the movie.) Word of the rape scene has triggered threats of violence against the three Afghan child actors who appear in the film, demands that the scene be cut, articles about Hollywood exploitation -- and an ensuing P.R. disaster for Paramount, which agreed to delay the film's release until the kids were safely out of Afghanistan. Last week, the studio announced that the children and their guardians had been relocated to an unnamed city in the United Arab Emirates, clearing the way for the film's release this Friday.

Salon sat down with Hosseini in San Francisco in October, just before "The Kite Runner" premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

To what extent was "The Kite Runner" a product of geopolitical timing? That is, just after Afghanistan and Afghans reached the headlines here and showed up on Americans' radar, your book comes out. Did you think, "Well, now there's finally an interest in the region" or "Now it's a marketable story"?

The timing wasn't intentional, but it kind of worked out that way. I really meant the book as a challenge to myself to write a novel. I had always written short stories and I'd written a short story called "Kite Runner" and I went about expanding the short story to a novel. When 9/11 happened, my wife really started talking to me about submitting a novel. I was reluctant at first, but eventually I came around to her way of looking at it, which was that this story could show a completely different side of Afghanistan. Usually stories about Afghanistan fall into "Taliban and war on terror" or "narcotics" -- the same old things. But here's a story about family life, about customs, about the drama within this household, a window into a different side of Afghanistan.

Do you think the book would have gotten the same attention if the U.S. hadn't been in the midst of a war in Afghanistan?

It helped the novel be published, but being published and having people still embracing the book four years later are two very different things. People read the books and tell their friends to read the book because they connect with something in the story.

Americans don't always put a human face on international news. But "The Kite Runner," which was the third bestselling book here in 2005 and was voted 2006's reading group book of the year, has helped demystify Afghanistan for a lot of people. Is that icing on the cake for you?

It's a hell of an icing if that's what it is. It's tremendous for me. Fiction has the ability of taking the reader to a place they would have never gone before, and putting them in the shoes of characters who are radically different than they are.

One of the most common comments I get -- from my Web site, e-mails or letters -- typically goes something like this: "I have to be honest with you, I really didn't know much about Afghanistan and I frankly didn't care much, and then somebody said you have to read this book and then I kind of reluctantly agreed, and all of a sudden Afghanistan has become a real place to me and the Afghans have become real people and I see the parallels between my life here and the life of the people in this completely remote country, and now when there's a news story about Afghanistan -- be it a bombing or an attack on a village -- it registers on a very personal level." That to me, that's wonderful.

Did you create the character of Amir as a stand-in for you?

No more than most first-time novelists who write in the first person. The setting in 1970s Kabul, the house where Amir lived, the films that he watches, of course the kite flying, the love of storytelling -- all of that is from my own childhood. The story line is fictional.

What about the relationship between Amir and his servant, Hassan, a friendship that nearly transcends class lines but does not in the end. Was that based on something from your own life?

There was a Hazara man who worked for my family for a couple of years and he was much older, 38. We became pretty good friends. He helped me fly kites and I helped him learn how to read; it was a lovely relationship and he eventually went away. The really striking thing was that I finished [writing] the entire novel without once consciously thinking of him. And then when I was done I said, "Oh my God, of course that's where this character comes from!" -- which was startling to me, the powers of the subconscious.

In the story, the character of Amir spends much of his young adulthood regretting his youthful actions, his bad choices and their lifelong consequences. Are the movie's themes of betrayal and cowardice drawn from your own experience too?

You don't want to draw too many parallels, but if there's a theme in the book that I have felt in real life it is having led a somewhat comfortable, privileged life amid real poverty and amid people who face a life of hardships. There's a line in the novel and film where Amir says, "I feel like a tourist in my own country," and I felt that way when I went back to Afghanistan [for the first time] after 27 years. There was a sense of coming home and at the same time I felt like an outsider and a tourist.

When Amir goes back to Afghanistan, after some 27 years, and rights his wrongs, the book -- and now the movie -- takes on a redemptive theme. Your second book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," for which Columbia Pictures owns the movie rights with an eye toward a 2009 release, also ends with redemption. Hollywood loves redemption. Did you envision the cinematic possibilities of an uplifting ending when you wrote the books?

I never thought "The Kite Runner" would make a good film. It felt to me that so much of the action was internal, was inside of this guy's head, and that the meat of the book was the grappling inside Amir's mind about his identity, the things he's done, about who he is. It wasn't until I read [back over] the novel a couple of more times that I saw that there was a cinematic quality about it. When I'm writing, I need to see exactly how the scene is choreographed and where characters are in relation to each other. I guess that lends itself to cinematic adaptation.

How in the world will they make "A Thousand Splendid Suns" into a film? Its depictions of cruelty to and abuse of women by their family members and the government in Afghanistan are probably even more horrific than even the most disturbing images in "The Kite Runner."

In terms of controversy in the Afghan community, I think that book is more palatable. There are issues [addressed in the book] about women, but the issues about ethnic tension are the sensitive ones in Afghanistan. If that film is ever made, I don't think we'll be facing the same sort of controversy.

In the film of "The Kite Runner," even though the rape is not explicitly shown -- we only see the boy's pants coming down -- there were rumors in Afghanistan that the studio planned to use computer animation to create CGI genitals and make the scene more graphic. There have been threats against the actors. An online petition was launched to "save the 'Kite Runner' boys." Had you anticipated that the rape scene would be problematic?

I thought it would raise eyebrows, but if anybody, either me or in the production, thought it would lead to the actors actually fearing for their lives, I don't think anyone would have gone forward. Certainly, they would not have cast actors from Afghanistan. The controversy reflects that things in Afghanistan have changed to some extent, certainly in the last year or two. Things have become more violent. It's a more dangerous place than it was. It has slid back and there's a new element of criminality and violence there.

Would you have advocated cutting the scene to protect the children?

I don't see how you could maintain the integrity of the film if you removed the scene. You'd pretty much have to scrap the whole thing. The scene is pivotal. Without it the story falls apart because, in many ways, that moment, the act in the alley, is so reprehensible -- a simple punching wouldn't have the same effect. It would really strain the limits of plausibility if this guy [Amir] were now marked for life [emotionally], with all the years of carrying the guilt. The scene is necessary, but I think you have to look at the film in a more panoramic way and not let one scene stand for the whole film.

I'm confused by the Afghan response. I've read of Afghans saying, "Rape is a taboo subject in Afghanistan, as is homosexuality" and "the culture and religion look down on those things." Doesn't showing the rape of a Hazara by a Pashtun reveal an underpublicized discrimination against an Afghan minority group by the dominant, majority ethnic group? Weren't you revealing the atrocities, not condoning them?

How anybody can see this film and walk away with the conclusion that it supports rape is unfathomable to me. This is a film that denounces what happened in that alley, not one that endorses it. It brings to light some of the terrible things that have happened in that country. The scene is pivotal, but the film is not about that scene. It's not about sexual predators.

Do you worry that the movie version of your novel, with its potential to create empathy, has been eclipsed by this controversy?

I hope this controversy hasn't overshadowed the fact that this is a film about good things -- about the virtues of tolerance, friendship, brotherhood and love and harmony -- and that it speaks against violence. There's a lovely scene in the film where Amir, in a moment of distress and personal anguish, goes to a mosque and prays. How many times have we seen Muslim characters in a film pray -- in that kind of very spiritual moment, piously? Usually when they do, in the next scene they're blowing something up. And I'm proud of the fact that Muslims around the world will see this character performing this ritual exactly in the way that it was meant to be performed.

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In March 2001, Khaled Hosseini started writing "The Kite Runner," his semiautobiographical saga about coming of age in Afghanistan and coming to America after the Soviet invasion -- and returning to Afghanistan after the rise of the Taliban. Six months into his work on the book, the events of 9/11 occurred.

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Baamboozle is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to millions of players every year at school, at work, and at home. Sign up for free!

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Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan

The Kite Runner focuses heavily on the disparities between ethnic groups in Afghanistan, especially between the Pastuns and Hazaras. It is the prejudice against Hazaras that leads to much of the ridicule and abuse that Hassan suffers throughout the novel, and creates an inner conflict for Amir that wracks him with guilt and a crisis of conscience.

A great resource that can be utilized for teaching this novel is distributed by Amnesty International.

In Appendix 1 of the above guide, the ethnic groups and their percentages in Afghanistan are broken down for students to get a better sense of the demographics of the country, especially in regards to Amir and Hassan who are Pashtun and Hazara, respectively:

Pashtuns are the majority in Afghanistan, making up about 42% of the population. They also hold most of the seats, and therefore power, in the government. They are made up of Sunni Muslims.

Hazaras comprise about 9% of Afghanistan's population, and are thought to be descended from the Mongol region, and in particular are believed to be descendants of Genghis Khan's army. The Hazaras are most frequently targeted and discriminated against, especially because they are mostly Shi'ite Muslims. There was an Hazara uprising in 1893 which Amir reads about in one of his mother's books, but they were defeated and suppressed.

The Tajiks make up around 27% of the population, and while they are also often low income, they are not discriminated against like the Hazaras. Many Tajiks hold important roles in the government.

The remainders of the population are Uzbeks and Turkmen (12%) and Nuristanis, Amaqs, and Baluchis (10%).

A note about Sunnis vs. Shi'ites: The Sunnis and Shi'te split came soon after the prophet Muhammed's death, when there was dispute over who should be his successor. The Sunni faction felt it should be someone in Muhammed's direct bloodline, and in particular his father-in-law Abu Bakr; the Shi'ites believed that Muhammed appointed his cousin Ali, who was married to his daughter, before his death. Because of the split between these two groups, many of their beliefs and interpretations of the Koran differ even today, although they both agree on the core tenets of Islam. The majority of the world's Muslim population are Sunnis.
Kite Flying and Kite Running in Kabul

Kite flying and running in Afghanistan was an important tradition to the people until it was banned by the Taliban in 1996. It was not only a competition, but a matter of honor and distinction for the competitors, and their runners. Young boys from all over Afghanistan, and particularly in Kabul, would spend care and time designing their kites and embedding glass into the tar wire, to cut their competitors' kites down out of the sky. When the kite falls, runners set out after the kite. The person to find and retrieve the kite gets to keep it, so the running becomes a competition as well. Typically the last kite to fall is the top prize for the runners. The tradition has made a comeback after the fall of the Taliban, with thousands of kites flying in competitions over cities in Afghanistan each year.

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Kite Runner Lesson Plans & Activities |The Kite Runner Summary

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The Kite Runner focuses heavily on the disparities between ethnic groups in Afghanistan, especially between the Pastuns and Hazaras. It is the prejudice against Hazaras that leads to much of the ridicule and abuse that Hassan suffers throughout the novel, and creates an inner conflict for Amir that wracks him with guilt and a crisis of conscience.

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Teaching Guides

The Kite Runne r presents students in the United States with a different perspective on Afghanistan than that developed in the media since 2001. This book can be used to build empathy for people from other cultures. It's also fantastic for cross-curricular studies in history and social studies classes.

The Kite Runner shows the modern history of Afghanistan from the coup against the king Zahir Shah, to the Soviet-Afghan War, to the rise of the Taliban. Hosseini depicts these events and their effects on Afghan society in a clear manner, but a background lesson will provide students with a better understanding of this history. Teachers may also want to have a lesson on the differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims and the persecution of ethnic Hazaras.

The novel contains a number of literary devices for students to analyze, most notably an allusion to the Persian myth of Rostam and Sohrab. Teachers can provide a summary of the myth or pair a full translation with The Kite Runner so students can analyze parallels between the novel and the myth.

Summary of The Kite Runner

Key Facts

Publication Date: 2003

Length: 384 pages

Lexile® Measure: 840

Recommended Grade Band: 10-11

Boeke Prize 2004; New York Times Bestseller; Reading Group Book of the Year 2006, 2007

Growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, Amir is close friends with Hassan, his father's Hazara servant. The two are like brothers until one day Amir betrays Hassan, and they grow apart. As Amir matures, civil unrest erupts in Afghanistan as the king is overthrown and the Russians invade. Amir and his father flee and immigrate to the United States, where Amir meets the woman who will become his wife. When he receives a phone call about Hassan's son living in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, he returns to his homeland in hopes of redeeming himself.

Content Warning: The Kite Runner contains instances of profanity, violence, and rape.

What Your Students Will Love About The Kite Runner

The book's universal themes-Hosseini has written a very accessible story, one that resonates regardless of the reader's cultural background

The valuable look into Afghanistan's past

The narrative arc of the book, which is a logical, symmetrical progression from shame and guilt to love and redemption

Potential Student Struggles With The Kite Runner

The coincidental nature of the book's resolution-some students may find that the book's final sections contain too many unlikely coincidences and thus strain credulity.

The narrator, who some may read as an unsympathetic character.

Learning Objectives for The Kite Runner

Describe the purpose and effect of the flashbacks throughout the story.

Explain the importance of names in the novel, giving relevant examples.

Trace Amir's coming of age in the story, noting key points in his growth and development.

Explain the many types of prejudice in the novel, and show how they affect the characters.

Identify and analyze symbols in the novel, including kites, the pomegranate tree, the lamb, and Hassan's cleft lip.

Analyze the significance of the novel within the context of Afghan history and politics.

Literary Elements in The Kite Runner

Major Themes in The Kite Runner

Guilt - The protagonist, Amir, struggles with the guilt he feels because he only hid and watched while his friend Hassan was violently raped.

Related Works:

Redemption - Amir is given a chance to redeem himself-"a way to be good again," in the words of one of the book's characters-and believes that he can heal himself through performing a good act.

Related Works:

Parent-Child Relationships - Amir craves his father's love and affection, but his father provides these comforts more to Hassan. This has a profound emotional effect on Amir.

Related Works:

Other Resources for The Kite Runner

Order The Kite Runner Resources from Prestwick House

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The Kite Runne r presents students in the United States with a different perspective on Afghanistan than that developed in the media since 2001. This book can be used to build empathy for people from other cultures. It's also fantastic for cross-curricular studies in history and social studies classes.

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Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins with Amir's memory of peering down an alley, looking for Hassan who is kite running for him. As Amir peers into the alley, he witnesses a tragedy. The novel ends with Amir kite running for Hassan's son, Sohrab, as he begins a new life with Amir in America. Why do you think the author chooses to frame the novel with these scenes? Refer to the following passage: "Afghans like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end...crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis [nomads]." How is this significant to the framing of the novel?

2. The strong underlying force of this novel is the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Discuss their friendship. Why is Amir afraid to be Hassan's true friend? Why does Amir constantly test Hassan's loyalty? Why does he resent Hassan? After the kite running tournament, why does Amir no longer want to be Hassan's friend?

3. Early in Amir and Hassan's friendship, they often visit a pomegranate tree where they spend hours reading and playing. "One summer day, I used one of Ali's kitchen knives to carve our names on it: 'Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.' Those words made it formal: the tree was ours." In a letter to Amir later in the story, Hassan mentions that "the tree hasn't borne fruit in years." Discuss the significance of this tree.

4. We begin to understand early in the novel that Amir is constantly vying for Baba's attention and often feels like an outsider in his father's life, as seen in the following passage: "He'd close the door, leave me to wonder why it was always grown-ups time with him. I'd sit by the door, knees drawn to my chest. Sometimes I sat there for an hour, sometimes two, listening to their laughter, their chatter." Discuss Amir's relationship with Baba.

5. After Amir wins the kite running tournament, his relationship with Baba undergoes significant change. However, while they form a bond of friendship, Amir is still unhappy. What causes this unhappiness and how has Baba contributed to Amir's state of mind? Eventually, the relationship between the two returns to the way it was before the tournament, and Amir laments "we actually deceived ourselves into thinking that a toy made of tissue paper, glue, and bamboo could somehow close the chasm between us." Discuss the significance of this passage.

6. As Amir remembers an Afghan celebration in which a sheep must be sacrificed, he talks about seeing the sheep's eyes moments before its death. "I don't know why I watch this yearly ritual in our backyard; my nightmares persist long after the bloodstains on the grass have faded. But I always watch, I watch because of that look of acceptance in the animal's eyes. Absurdly, I imagine the animal understands. I imagine the animal sees that its imminent demise is for a higher purpose." Why do you think Amir recalls this memory when he witnesses Hassan's tragedy in the alleyway? Amir recollects the memory again toward the end of the novel when he sees Sohrab in the home of the Taliban. Discuss the image in the context of the novel.

7. America acts as a place for Amir to bury his memories and a place for Baba to mourn his. In America, there are "homes that made Baba's house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant's hut." What is ironic about this statement? What is the function of irony in this novel?

8. What is the significance of the irony in the first story that Amir writes? After hearing Amir's story, Hassan asks, "Why did the man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have to feel sad to shed tears? Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?" How is his reaction to the story a metaphor for Amir's life? How does this story epitomize the difference in character between Hassan and Amir?

9. Why is Baba disappointed by Amir's decision to become a writer? During their argument about his career path, Amir thinks to himself: "I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn't want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself." What has Amir sacrificed for Baba? How has Amir "damned himself"?

10. Compare and contrast the relationships of Soraya and Amir and their fathers. How have their upbringings contributed to these relationships?

11. Discuss how the ever-changing politics of Afghanistan affect each of the characters in the novel.

12. On Amir's trip back to Afghanistan, he stays at the home of his driver, Farid. Upon leaving he remarks: "Earlier that morning, when I was certain no one was looking, I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier: I planted a fistful of crumpled money under the mattress." Why is this moment so important in Amir's journey?

13. Throughout the story, Baba worries because Amir never stands up for himself. When does this change?

14. Amir's confrontation with Assef in Wazir Akar Khan marks an important turning point in the novel. Why does the author have Amir, Assef, and Sohrab all come together in this way? What is this the significance of the scar that Amir develops as a result of the confrontation? Why is it important in Amir's journey toward forgiveness and acceptance?

15. While in the hospital in Peshawar, Amir has a dream in which he sees his father wrestling a bear: "They role over a patch of grass, man and beast...they fall to the ground with a loud thud and Baba is sitting on the bear's chest, his fingers digging in its snout. He looks up at me, and I see. He's me. I am wrestling the bear." Why is this dream so important at this point in the story? What does this dream finally help Amir realize?

16. Amir and Hassan have a favorite story. Does the story have the same meaning for both men? Why does Hassan name his son after one of the characters in the story?

17. Baba and Amir know that they are very different people. Often it disappoints both of them that Amir is not the son that Baba has hoped for. When Amir finds out that Baba has lied to him about Hassan, he realizes that "as it turned out, Baba and I were more alike than I'd never known." How does this make Amir feel about his father? How is this both a negative and positive realization?

18. When Amir and Baba move to the States their relationship changes, and Amir begins to view his father as a more complex man. Discuss the changes in their relationship. Do you see the changes in Baba as tragic or positive?

19. Discuss the difference between Baba and Ali and between Amir and Hassan. Are Baba's and Amir's betrayals and similarities in their relationships of their servants (if you consider Baba's act a betrayal) similar or different? Do you think that such betrayals are inevitable in the master/servant relationship, or do you feel that they are due to flaws in Baba's and Amir's characters, or are they the outcome of circumstances and characters?
( Questions issued by publisher.)
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Discussion Questions 1. The novel begins with Amir's memory of peering down an alley, looking for Hassan who is kite running for him. As Amir peers into the alley, he witnesses a tragedy. The novel ends with Amir kite running for Hassan's son, Sohrab, as he begins a new life with Amir in America.

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Set in Afghanistan during a time of political and social upheaval, this novel traces the decades-long friendship of two boys from different social classes.

Learn Explore the Words Assign

Start learning with an activity...

Answer a few questions on each word. Get one wrong? We'll ask some follow-up questions. Use it to prep for your next quiz!

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Test your spelling acumen. See the definition, listen to the word, then try to spell it correctly. Beat your last streak, or best your overall time. Spellers of the world, untie!

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Practice progress on lists in this collection:

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Set in Afghanistan during a time of political and social upheaval, this novel traces the decades-long friendship of two boys from different social classes. Learn Explore the Words Assign Answer a few questions on each word. Get one wrong? We'll ask some follow-up questions. Use it to prep for your next quiz!

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This is an edpuzzle that shows 19 minutes of the movie with embedded questions asking the student to compare what happens to the book.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Introduction

The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini

"Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. If you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. I never slept the night before the tournament. I'd roll from side to side, make shadow animals on the wall, even sit on the balcony in the dark, a blanket wrapped around me. I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches the night before a major battle. And that wasn't so far off. In Kabul, fighting kites was a little like going to war"(Hosseini 43).

Remember reading that quote? Let's dig a little deeper and look for it's significance!

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Introduction The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini "Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. If you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. I never slept the night before the tournament.

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Background

Behind the Story

'The Kite Runner' has many different layers, these include political policy and tribal and religious dimensions. To help to under these elements, Film Education spoke with Adbul-Rehman Malik Contributing Editor from Q News to help us understand the context behind the story. Q News is Britain's leading Muslim magazine, providing outside-the-box analysis of current affairs, culture, ideas and spirituality.

To listen to Abdul's answers click on the speaker icon for each question.
Q: What would life have been like in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion?
Abdul Rehman-Malik: It's important to understand that Afghanistan plays an interesting role in global affairs... listen (2.3mb)
Q1: After the Soviet invasion what was life like for everyday people?
Abdul Rehman-Malik: For everyday people, to the Afghans, this would have been a front, Afghan history has never been kind to foreign occupiers... listen (2.1mb)
Q2: During the film we see Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban. How did they come to power, and what do they believe in (with particular reference to the stoning scene in the Stadium)?
Abdul Rehman-Malik: To understand that particular scene in the movie we need to understand what happened after the Soviets left... listen (3.0mb)
Q3: Hassan is regularly referred to as a Haraza boy - this is meant as a term of abuse. Why is this?
Abdul Rehman-Malik: The issues of the Haraza are in fact fascinating within Afghanistan. But its important to give a little bit of background... listen (3.1mb)
Q4: The cold war connects the U.S. and Amir's father via a hatred for the Russians (think back to the scene in the bar after Amir graduates) can you explain the relationship?
Abdul Rehman-Malik: When the Russian army entered Afghanistan at the end of 1979, then US President Jimmy Carter called it the greatest crisis, political crisis since the Second World War... listen (2.2mb)

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'The Kite Runner' has many different layers, these include political policy and tribal and religious dimensions. To help to under these elements, Film Education spoke with Adbul-Rehman Malik Contributing Editor from Q News to help us understand the context behind the story.

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Local officials in the central Afghan province where the Taliban detained 18 staffers for a long-serving humanitarian NGO earlier this month suggest the group was suspected of spreading Christianity, RFE/RL's Radio Azadi has learned.

Taliban intelligence and other officials in Kabul have remained silent over the detentions.

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) humanitarian group in Afghanistan on September 15 announced the detention of 18 team members from its offices in Ghor Province between September 3 and 13. It said they all appear to have been transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

IAM and other information suggested the detainees comprise 17 Afghan nationals and a female American surgeon.

Early on September 16, IAM said it still "has not been informed of the reasons for the detention of our staff."

But Taliban officials in Ghor have accused them of spreading Christianity, which can be punished under strict interpretations of Islamic law in Afghanistan.

In a written message to Radio Azadi, Abdul Hai Zaim, the head of information and culture for the Taliban-led government for Ghor Province, confirmed the arrest of the IAM employees and claimed -- without providing evidence -- that they had been promoting Christianity.

The fundamentalist Taliban, who retook control of Afghanistan as U.S.-led international forces withdrew in 2021, have imposed a particularly harsh form of Shari'a law on the country when they have been in power at various points in the past four decades.

The internationally unrecognized Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has been accused by UN and other international officials of grave human rights offenses against non-Muslims, women, and minorities.

IAM said on September 16 that it had inquired with the Taliban-led Afghan government's Finance Ministry and was "working together with the UN and ACBAR, the coordinating body for NGOs in Afghanistan," to seek the release of the staff members.

IAM has worked in Afghanistan for nearly six decades, it said.

"IAM has worked in Afghanistan alongside Afghan communities for 57 years and we value and respect local customs and cultures. We stand by the principle that 'aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint,'" it said, adding, "All IAM staff agree to abide by the laws of Afghanistan."

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Artistry In The Air -- Kite Flying Is Taken To New Heights In Afghanistan

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The streets of the capital, Kabul, are filled with shops selling kite-flying equipment, and the skies above the city are decorated each day with hundreds of colorful kites fluttering in the wind. Banned by the Taliban as un-Islamic, kite flying has now hit new heights of popularity in the country.

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"There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Prophet of God."

--Islamic statement of faith

There is no God but God ( Allah), and Muhammad is his Prophet. The Qur'an is a perfect record of God's revelation to Muhammad. Angels exist to serve Allah. Afterlife is Paradise or Hell. Predestination.

Islam is one of the largest religions in the world, with over 1 billion followers. It is a monotheistic faith based on revelations received by the Prophet Muhammad in 7th-century Saudi Arabia. The Arabic word islam means "submission," reflecting the faith's central tenet of submitting to the will of God. Followers of Islam are called Muslims.

According to Islamic tradition, the angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet over the course of 20 years, revealing to him many messages from God. Muslims recognize some earlier Judeo-Christian prophets-including Moses and Jesus-as messengers of of the same true God. But in Islam, but Muhammad is the last and greatest of the prophets, whose revelations alone are pure and uncorrupted.

The Prophet dedicated the remainder of his life to spreading a message of monotheism in a polytheistic world. In 622, he fled north to the city of Medina to escape growing persecution. This event marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Eight years later, Muhammad returned to Mecca with an army and conquered the city for Islam. By Muhammad's death, 50 years later, the entire Arabian Peninsula had come under Muslim control.

The sacred text of Islam, the Qur'an, was written in Arabic within 30 years of Muhammad's death. Muslims believe it contains the literal word of God. Also important is the tradition of the sayings and actions of Muhammad and his companions, collected in the Hadith.

Islamic practices center on the Five Pillars of Islam-faith; prayer; fasting; pilgrimage to Mecca; and alms-and include several holidays and rituals as well.

Islam and the Judeo-Christian West have had a challenging relationship for centuries and today's conflicts in the Middle East are religiously charged. Thus a focus on the facts and efforts towards mutual understanding are particularly important when it comes to Islam.

Table of Contents

Further Reading

Robinson, Francis (ed.) and Ira M. Lapidus (foreword), Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Malise Ruthven, Islam: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (Modern Library, 2002).

Clark, Malcolm, Islam For Dummies (For Dummies, 2003).

John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path (Oxford University Press, 2010).

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (6-Volume Set) (Oxford University Press, 2009).

"Islam." BBC Religion & Ethics.

Godlas, Alan. "Islam and Islamic Studies Resources: For Studying Islam and the Diverse Perspectives of Muslims."

Welch, Alford T., "Islam." Hinnells, John R. (ed.), The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions (Penguin Books).

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"There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Prophet of God." --Islamic statement of faith There is no God but God ( Allah), and Muhammad is his Prophet. The Qur'an is a perfect record of God's revelation to Muhammad. Angels exist to serve Allah. Afterlife is Paradise or Hell.

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Culture of Afghanistan - history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social

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Culture of Afghanistan - history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social A-Bo

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Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan has suffered from such chronic instability and conflict during its modern history that its economy and infrastructure are in ruins, and many of its people are refugees.

The Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule following a devastating civil war, were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001 but have recently been making a comeback.

The internationally-recognised government set up following the adoption of a new constitution in 2004 has struggled to extend its authority beyond the capital and to forge national unity.

Nato-led foreign combat troops had the main responsibility for maintaining security after 2001, and the formal end of Nato's combat mission in December 2014 was followed by an upsurge in Taliban activity.

See Afghanistan in pictures

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

FACTS

LEADERS
President: Ashraf Ghani
President Ghani, right, heads a unity government along with former rival and now chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, left. He was sworn in as president in September 2014.

He replaced Hamid Karzai, who led the country for twelve years after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

MEDIA

There is a lively private media scene, which includes dozens of TV networks and more than 170 radio stations.

Reporters Without Borders says that journalists and the media are under constant threat from militants, warlords and corrupt officials.

Internet access can be expensive. Facebook tends to be used by younger Afghans and the political elite.

Read full media profile

TIMELINE
Some key dates in Afghanistan's history:
1979 - Soviet Army invades and props up communist government. More than a million people die in the ensuing war.

1989 - Last Soviet troops leave. US- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen push to overthrow Soviet-installed Afghan ruler Najibullah triggers devastating civil war.

1996 - Taliban seize control of Kabul and impose hard-line version of Islam.

2001 - US intervenes militarily following September 11 attacks on the United States. Taliban are ousted from Kabul and Hamid Karzai becomes head of an interim power-sharing government.

2002 - Nato assumes responsibility for maintaining security in Afghanistan.

2004 - Loya Jirga adopts new constitution which provides for strong presidency. Hamid Karzai is elected president.

2014 - Ashraf Ghani elected president. NATO formally ends its combat mission in Afghanistan, handing over to Afghan forces, who face a growing insurgency.

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Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan has suffered from such chronic instability and conflict during its modern history that its economy and infrastructure are in ruins, and many of its people are refugees. The Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule following a devastating civil war, were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001 but have recently been making a comeback.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Author

Khaled Hosseini

Country

Afghanistan

Language

English language

Genre(s)

Fiction

Publisher

Riverhead Books

Released

June 2003

Media Type

Print (Hardcover

Pages

336 p. (first edition, hardback)

ISBN

ISBN 1-57322-245-3 (first edition, hardback) & ISBN 1-59448-000-1 (paperback edition)

Amir, a well-to-do Pashtun boy, and Hassan, a Hazara and the son of Amir's father's servant, Ali, spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir's father (who is generally referred to as Baba, "daddy", throughout the book) loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir for not being manly enough. Amir also fears his father blames him for his mother's death during childbirth. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba's friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories.

Assef, a notoriously mean and violent older boy with sadistic tendencies, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his steel knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge.

Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir, knowing where the kite will land without even watching it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba's praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying "For you, a thousand times over." Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef's voice. He witnesses the rape but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. Amir reacts indifferently because he feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan's saint-like behavior. Already jealous of Baba's love for Hassan, he worries if Baba knew how bravely Hassan defended Amir's kite, and how cowardly Amir acted, that Baba's love for Hassan would grow even more.

To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing." Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba's extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan's departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow and his guilt.

Five years later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, who lived in luxury in an expansive mansion in Afghanistan, settle in a run-down apartment and Baba begins work at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets fellow refugee Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya's father, who was a high-ranking officer in Afghanistan, has contempt of Amir's literary aspiration. Baba is diagnosed with terminal oat cell carcinoma but is still capable of granting Amir one last favor: he asks Soraya's father's permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children.

Amir embarks on a successful career as a novelist. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness. Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to Pakistan. He enigmatically tells Amir "there is a way to be good again." Amir goes.

From Rahim Khan, Amir learns the fates of Ali and Hassan. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba's house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan's request. One day the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but he refused, and was murdered, along with his wife. Rahim Khan reveals that Ali was not really Hassan's father. Hassan was actually the son of Baba, therefore Amir's half-brother. Finally, Rahim Khan tells Amir that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage.

Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and searches for Sohrab at the orphanage. In order to enter Taliban territory, Amir, who is normally clean shaven, dons a fake beard and mustache, because otherwise the Taliban would exact Shariah punishment against him. However, he does not find Sohrab where he was supposed to be: the director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official comes often, brings cash and usually takes a girl back with him. Once in a while however, he takes a boy, recently Sohrab. The director tells Amir to go to a soccer match and the man "who does the speeches" is the man who took Sohrab. Farid manages to secure an appointment with the speaker at his home, by saying that he and Amir have "personal business" with him.

At the house, Amir has his meeting with the man in sunglasses,who says the man who does the speeches is not available,. The man in sunglasses is eventually revealed to be his childhood nemesis, Assef. Assef is aware of Amir's identity from the very beginning, but Amir doesn't realize who he's sitting across from until Assef starts asking about Ali, Baba and Hassan. Sohrab is being kept at the home where he is made to dance dressed in women's clothes, and it seems Assef might have been sexually assaulting him. (Sohrab later says, "I'm so dirty and full of sin. The bad man and the other two did things to me.") Assef agrees to relinquish him, but only for a price - cruelly beating Amir. However, Amir is saved when Sohrab uses his slingshot to shoot out Assef's left eye, fulfilling the threat his father had made many years before.

Amir tells Sohrab of his plans to take him back to America and possibly adopt him, and promises that he will never be sent to an orphanage again. After almost having to break that promise (after decades of war, paperwork documenting Sohrab's orphan status, as demanded by the US authorities, is impossible to get) and Sohrab attempting suicide, Amir manages to take him back to the United States and introduces him to his wife. However, Sohrab is emotionally damaged and refuses to speak or even glance at Soraya. This continues until his frozen emotions are thawed when Amir reminisces about his father, Hassan, while kite flying. Amir shows off some of Hassan's tricks, and Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again. In the end Sohrab only shows a lopsided smile, but Amir takes to it with all his heart as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over.".

The Kite Runner Themes

Major themes explored in the novel are war, loyalty, forgiveness, friendship, redemption, sacrifice, race, class, fear and the relationships between father and son. With race, class, and gender, a theme could be the inhumanity inflicted by one man unto another based on one's race. The Kite Runner is a novel to be read, discussed, and enjoyed by anyone who has wanted a chance to make things right again. It also provides a sense of traditional Afghan lifestyle, and culture. However, the four main themes shown to us by the author are strength of character, sin and redemption, relationship between parent and child, as well as Loyalty and friendship between two people.

Major Characters

Best friend and servant of Amir

Thought to be the son of Ali, but it is revealed in chapter 17 he is actually Baba's son

Loyal to Amir despite any impact it may have on himself

Sohrab's father

Was raped as a teen, Amir witnessed, This is one of the most important parts of the novel

Dies because of a Taliban search. Killed in a back ally along with his wife

Servant of Baba, supposed father of Hassan

Like a brother to Baba

Leg crippled from Polio

Poor

Dies from a landmine explosion

Hazara

He can not have kids because of the Polio (Which Amir Learns Later)

Business associate and close friend of Baba

Has a close relationship with Amir

Also the main reason Amir returns back to the middle east

Afghan living in California

Wife of Amir

Chapter Summaries

Chapter One

The narrator, Amir, recalls a day in the winter of 1975 that changes his life. On this day, he remembers hiding behind a crumbling mud wall, peering down an alley. He does not go into greater detail, but he notes that the memory haunts him. He speaks of committing suicide.

He also recalls a phone call he received the summer before from his friend Rahim Khan, who requests that Amir visit him in Pakistan.

After the phone call, Amir walks through San Francisco, where he now lives. He sees two kites and remembers the words Rahim Khan said before he hung up- "There is a way to be good again."

Chapter Two

Hassan is another childhood friend. He has a cleft lip, but is otherwise beautiful. Hassan is always loyal to Amir and tries unfailingly to please him. Hassan's father is Ali, who works for Amir's father. They live in a mud shack on the property. Hassan's mother left one week after he was born to live with traveling dancers. This is considered very shameful.

Amir's father is well-to-do and they own an estate in an affluent neighborhood in northern Kabul. Amir calls his father Baba. Baba has many friends, but his best friend is Rahim Khan. Amir's mother died while giving birth to him.

Ali's lower facial muscles are paralyzed, so he cannot show much emotion. He also has a twisted right leg, which causes him to have a strange walk. He is a Hazara and a Shi'a Muslim. Amir's family is Pashtun and Sunni Muslim. Which he recieves verbal abuse by the Pastuns for.

Hassan and Amir grew up together. Amir's first word was Baba. Hassan's was Amir. Amir believes this laid the foundation for what happened in 1975.

Chapter Three

Baba is a formidable man, both in stature and business. Amir longs to be close to him, but always fears his father is distant because his wife died giving birth to Amir. Some of Baba's businesses are an orphanage, a restaurant, and a carpet-exporting business. He is one of the richest merchants in Kabul.

Baba says that theft is the one true sin. All other sins (such as murder) are variants of theft. He believes that a murderer robs a wife of a husband, a child of a father. Baba's father was murdered when Baba was a child.

Amir overhears a conversation between Baba and Rahim Khan. Baba says that he doesn't understand Amir because he does not stand up for himself. Even when teased and pushed in the streets, Amir lets Hassan defend him. Baba does not respect this quality, and says that if he did not see Amir's birth, he would not believe Amir is his son.

Rahim Khan says Amir just lacks a mean streak. Baba is glad Rahim Khan understands Amir and can be close to him.

The next day, Amir snaps at Hassan out of jealousy. Amir says he does have a mean streak.

Chapter Four

Baba's father was a judge who adopted an orphan and raised the boy along with his son. The orphan was Ali. Baba never refers to Ali as a friend, and Amir realizes he never refers to Hassan as a friend.

Hassan and Ali are servants in Baba's home. Amir goes to school, but Hassan does not. Amir reads to Hassan. One time, Amir pretends to read, but makes up his own story. When he finishes, Hassan claps and says it is the best story he has heard. . He mentions that he would love to hear stories like the one he just shared.

Amir writes his first short story that night. Amir brings the story to Baba, but he is not interested. Rahim Khan reads the story and writes Amir a note, encouraging him to write because he has a God-given talent, especially his understanding of irony. Amir wishes Rahim Khan was his father. He shares the story with Hassan, who points out a problem with the plot, Amir's first introduction to the plot hole. Amir is astounded and slightly angry, because an illiterate, uneducated boy can find something he could not. At the end of this chapter Amir says that suddenly Afgahnistan changed forever.

Chapter Five

Amir and Hassan's conversation is cut short by an explosion and gunfire. Ali hides with the boys during the attack.

Amir and Hassan are stopped by Assef, the neighborhood bully. He is relentlessly cruel to Hassan because he is Hazara. Assef says Hitler was a great leader, and the new president should follow his plan to get rid of the Hazara. (Assef himself has blue eyes and blonde hair because his mother is German; he points out, however, that his mother despises Hitler.) Hassan pulls a slingshot on Assef, Assef backs off saying he will get them later.

For Hassan's twelfth birthday, Baba arranges for Hassan to have his cleft lip repaired by a plastic surgeon. After the surgery, his scar is barely noticeable.

Chapter Six

During the icy winter months, the schools of Kabul are closed. Kites are a popular activity. It is one of the only interests that Amir shares with Baba. Kabul holds kite-fighting tournaments that are greatly anticipated. Baba takes the boys to Saifo, a shoe repairman and the city's most famous kite maker.

The kite strings are coated with glue and glass so that the opponent's kite string can be cut down during the fight. Kite runners run after kites after their strings are cut, chasing them until they land. The runner gets to keep the kite, but the grand prize is the last cut kite.

Hassan was the greatest kite runner.

Chapter Seven

Amir wins the annual kite fight as Baba watches. Amir wonders if Baba is proud of him or proud of Hassan. Hassan runs after the last kite Amir cut, as Amir plans to present the kite to Baba as a trophy.

Amir looks for Hassan and finds him cornered in an alley by Assef and his friends. They want to take the kite and beat up Hassan. Assef tells Hassan that he is not really Amir's friend, but his servant. They start to beat Hassan as Amir crouches behind a wall, watching because he is too afraid to step in.

Assef rapes Hassan as his friends hold him down. Amir runs away. He later meets Hassan and pretends he doesn't know what happened. Hassan gives Amir the kite, and Amir wonders if Hassan knows Amir saw. Amir gives the kite to Baba, who is proud of Amir.

Chapter Eight

Hassan avoids Amir and spends most of his time in bed. Ali asks Amir if he knows what happened the night of the kite fight. Amir snaps and tells Ali to do his work.

Baba shows a lot of interest in Amir, even taking him to the movies. For one particular outing, Amir hopes to go with just Baba, but Baba invites three van loads of friends to go along. Amir cannot enjoy any of this because he feels guilty. Amir becomes an insomniac as a result of his guilt.

Hassan attempts to be friendly with Amir again, but Amir pushes him away.

Amir angers Baba by asking if he ever thought about getting new servants. Their relationship deteriorates.

Amir tries to start a pomegranate fight with Hassan, but Hassan will not fight back. He takes a pomegranate and smashes it into his own head instead of hitting Amir. This shows Hassan's loyalty to Amir.

Baba throws a huge thirteenth birthday party for Amir. Assef presents Amir with a gift- a biography of Hitler. Rahim Khan tells Amir that he can talk to him anytime and gives a blank book for writing.

Chapter Nine

Amir realizes that he cannot live with Hassan anymore. Amir lies and tells Baba that Hassan stole his birthday money and watch, a gift from his father. Baba talks to Ali, and then confronts Hassan with Amir. Hassan admits to stealing to protect Amir. Amir realizes that Hassan knew everything- including his hiding behind the wall instead of helping him.

Baba surprises Amir by forgiving Hassan. Ali tells Baba they are leaving. Baba begs them to stay, but they leave. This is the first time Amir sees Baba cry. Baba drives Ali and Hassan to the bus station.

Chapter Ten

In March of 1981, Amir and Baba flee Kabul, taking only a few personal items. They do this in secret because spies for the Russian soldiers are everywhere. They are headed for Pakistan.

At the border, they are stopped by soldiers. They say they can cross the border after they have half an hour with the young woman traveling with them. Baba protests and the young soldier pulls a gun on Baba, who won't back down. An older officer stops the younger soldier and allows them to pass.

The group is supposed to change vehicles, but the second truck has been broken for weeks. Baba nearly kills the man when he realizes the man only transported them for the money. They will have to wait for the truck to be repaired, along with thirty other refugees and rats.

In the basement, they meet Kamal and his father, friends from Kabul. Kamal was raped just like Hassan. Kamal does not speak anymore.

All of the refugees are transported in a fuel truck to Pakistan. Kamal dies during the trip, apparently from gas fumes. Kamal's father kills himself because he feels that he just lost his last valuable aspect in life.

Chapter Eleven

Baba and Amir settle in Fremont, California. Baba does not fit in and is not happy working at a gas station. He says he came to America for Amir. Amir says,"For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, a place to mourn his"

Amir graduates High School in 1983 at the age of 20, after graduation Baba takes him out to dinner and then to a bar where they drink. Baba winds up drinking too much but makes a good impression on all the patrons of the bar and buys them all rounds of drinks. When they get home Baba tells Amir to drive to the end of the block, a Ford Grand Torino is sitting there, Baba said it needed work, but it ran and will be needed for Amir to go to College.

Amir displeases his father when he tells him he wants to major in English in college.

Amir and Baba buy a VW bus and go to frequent garage sales. They then sell the items at a profit at the flea market. Amir meets Soraya, the daughter of Baba's old friend, General Taheri.

Chapter Twelve

Amir begins to court Soraya. She asks to read one of his stories. Though Baba does make many allusions to honor and pride (dissuading Amir from flirting with Soraya), ultimately, the reason Amir stops courting Soraya is because of Soraya's father who finds the two talking alone together in the market. Amir had given Soraya one of his stories, which Soraya's father promptly threw in the garbage.

Baba is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Baba refuses treatment. He collapses with a seizure at the flea market. Soraya and her family visit. Days later, Baba arranges Amir's engagement to Soraya. She worries that her past- she ran away with a man and lived with him for a month- will cause Amir to not want to marry her. Amir envies her because her secret is out.

Chapter Thirteen

Amir and Soraya are married. She moves in with Amir and Baba because Baba is so sick. She takes responsibility for Baba's care. She reads Amir's stories to Baba. He dies one month later in his sleep

The couple settles into a routine. Amir finishes his first novel in 1988. The book is released the following year. Amir remembers Hassan's belief of his writing ability.

The couple try to conceive for one year. They are unsuccessful and try in-vitro fertilization. They consider adoption, and General Taheri, her father, does not approve. They decide not to adopt.

Chapter Fourteen

Amir and Soraya, have a Cocker Spaniel, named Aflatoon, which means Plato in Farsi, they said, "that if you looked hard enough into the dog's black eye's that you'd swear he was thinking wise thoughts." Soraya, has been teaching at the same school for six years. Amir tells Soraya that he has to go to Pakistan to visit Rahim Khan, who is very sick. Amir, believes that there is an un-spoken secret between Rahim Khan and himself. This is foreshadowing the fact that Rahim Khan knows all about Hassan, and how he is Amir's brother and will soon tell him. Rahim Khan, has also always known about the circumstances surrounding Hassan, being raped, and what Amir did in order to get Hassan and Ali out of his life. Amir finally decides to go to Pakistan and visit Rahim Khan.

Chapter Fifteen

Amir returns to Pakistan. Amir sees an ill Rahim Khan, who tells Amir about the unbearable life of Afghans under Taliban rule. Rahim Khan was happy at first when the Taliban defeated the Russian soldiers because he thought life in Kabul would improve. Most people felt this way because they thought the fighting would stop.

Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan lived with him in Baba's house in Kabul after he left. He says he wants to tell Amir about Hassan.

Chapter Sixteen

Rahim Khan found Hassan in 1986. Hassan was married and his wife was expecting a baby. Ali had been killed by a land mine.

Hassan asked many questions about Amir and wanted to know if Khan would read a letter from Amir. He wept when told about Baba's death.

Hassan and his wife decide to move with Rahim Khan, but will only live in the hut and work as servants so as not to offend Amir.

Hassan's daughter was stillborn.

Hassan's mother returns to see him, disfigured from a recent knife attack. They nurse her back to health.

Hassan's wife gave birth to a son named Sohrab.

Hassan's mother died four years later.

Hassan taught his son to be a kite runner. The Taliban banned kite fighting shortly after taking power. Taliban fighters massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Chapter Seventeen

Amir asks where Hassan can be found. Rahim Khan hands him a picture of Hassan and his son and a letter.

In the letter, Hassan tells him about living under Taliban rule and his family. Hassan clearly wishes to see his friend Amir.

A month after Rahim Khan left for Pakistan, Taliban officers came to take the house. Hassan refused to leave. He and his wife were shot dead.

Rahim Khan asks Amir to go to Kabul and bring 10 year old Sohrab to him.

He also tells Amir that Ali was sterile. Hassan was also Baba's son. Hassan never knew.

Chapter Eighteen

Amir feels betrayed and angry. He feels his father is a thief because he stole his brother and dishonored Ali. He realizes that he, like his father, betrayed the one person who would have done anything for him. He thinks about the good life Hassan could have had in America but due to his actions he did not. Amir decides to go to Kabul.

Chapter Nineteen

Amir enters Afghanistan with the help of Farid, a man who has contempt for Amir because he was born with privilege. Farid dislikes Amir at first because he believes that the only reason Amir is returning to Afghanistan is so he can sell off property, and ultimately make money. Farid takes Amir to Wahid's house. There, Amir is served a dinner, which he offers to share with Wahid's children. Amir notices that the children are staring at his watch. During dinner, Amir reveals to Wahid and his family that he has returned to Afghanistan in order to rescue his half brother's son. This is suprising, because Amir is very reluctant to reveal his father's lack of pride and honor. Later on, he overhears Wahid and his wife arguing that they had to give food to Amir since he was a guest, even though they barely had any food for themselves. Farid thinks better of him when he learns why he is going to Kabul. Farid and Amir leave the house, and Amir gives his watch to one of the children. However, Amir realizes the kids weren't staring at his watch at all, they were staring at his food. At the very end of the chapter, Amir puts money under his matress for the children to find and buy food with. He also realized it had been 26 years since he had put money under someone's bed; the first time, however, was for a terrible purpose. This reveals how much Amir has grown and changed as a man.

Chapter Twenty

Amir enters Kabul and is shocked by the destruction and begging children. Amir and Farid locate the orphanage where Sohrab has been living. Amir convinces the director to help them find Sohrab by referring to his skills with the slingshot. When the director lets Amir and Farid in, he regretfully informs Amir that a Talib Official had come to the orphanage and bought Sohrab. Farid is furious about this, and accuses the director of selling the children to make a profit. He then begins to strangle the director until Amir intervenes. The director informs Farid and Amir that he has no choice but to sell some of the children. He says that if he refused, the Taliban would take as many children as they want instead. He adds that he had spent his life savings on the orphanage, and instead of escaping to Pakistan like many others did, he chose to stay and run the orphanage. The director then instructs Amir and Farid to go to Ghazi stadium, and look for the Talib official with the black sunglasses, this man will know where Sohrab is.

Chapter Twenty-One

Amir and Farid visit Amir's childhood home, and they find his neighborhood is now home to the rich Taliban.

The next day, they go to Ghazi Stadium to find the official who bought Sohrab. The stadium is filled with people watching soccer. During halftime, a man and a woman are stoned to death for adultery on the field by a man in white and wearing "John Lennon sunglasses," the Taliban official.

Amir and Farid arrange for a three o'clock appointment with the official.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Amir goes in alone to see the official, who lives in a palatial home. He is verbally abused and threatened by the official, who instructs guards to bring Sohrab to the room. He looks just like Hassan. Sohrab is dressed almost like a court jester, wearing make-up, and forced to dance whenever music is played.

The official asks Amir where "babalu" is, in reference to Ali. He removes his glasses, and Amir realizes the official is actually Assef. Assef says he can have Sohrab, but first he has to earn him. Assef tells his guards not to come in the room, no matter what they hear. He and Amir have unsettled business. Only one of them will come out alive. If it is Amir, then the guards will have to let Amir and Sohrab go.

Assef beats Amir badly, breaking his nose and teeth. Amir starts laughing. He believes it is funny how just now that he is being beaten up he finally feels comfort. His laughing angers Assef more.

The fight ends when Sohrab points his slingshot at Assef, who lunges at Sohrab. Sohrab's shot takes out Assef's eye. This fulfilles the taunt of Hassan of calling him a "One Eyed Assef". Sohrab helps Amir out of the house. Farid drives them away.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Amir fades in and out of consciousness. He wakes up two days later in a hospital with a broken jaw, punctured lung, ruptured spleen, and other injuries.

Rahim Khan has left town, leaving a letter for Amir. He tells Amir that he should forgive himself for what happened to Hassan and he should also forgive Baba someday. Baba was torn between two sons and took out his frustration on Amir. Rahim Khan also leaves his money in a safe deposit box for Amir.

Amir has to be moved soon because the Taliban are looking for him. Amir bonds slowly with Sohrab over cards. The people Amir planned to leave Sohrab with were made up by Rahim Khan. Amir takes him to Islamabad.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Amir wakes up one night and Sohrab is gone. He finds him by the mosque. Sohrab says he is beginning to forget what his parents look like. Sohrab is ashamed of what Assef did to him. Amir offers to take him to live with him in America.

Amir calls his wife and tells her about Hassan, what happened in Kabul, and his desire to adopt Sohrab.

A man at the American Embassy in Islamabad says adopting Sohrab is impossible, due to the fact that Amir would need death certificates of his parents (Hassan and Farzana), when most people in Afghanistan hardly had birth certificates. Also, he would need to prove that Sohrab is really his half nephew, which was nearly impossible as well. However, he still gives them the name of an immigration lawyer. Amir meets with the lawyer who says Sohrab may have to wait in an orphanage. He is willing to help. Soraya arranges for a humanitarian visa to get Sohrab into the U.S. Later, Amir tells Sohrab that he would need to go to an orphanage again. Terrified, Sohrab becomes very upset. Later that night, Sohrab was taking a bath; Amir enters to talk with Sohrab, but finds that he has slit one of his wrists with a razorblade. It was said that Amir was still screaming after the ambulance arrived.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sohrab tries to commit suicide rather than be put in an orphanage. He survives, but he tells Amir he wishes that he had died. Sohrab does not speak for a year after that.

Amir and Sohrab go home to America. Sohrab remains silent.

At a party thrown by the American Afghan community, Amir buys Sohrab a kite. The two of them kite fight together and win. Just as he and Hassan had done years earlier. Amir is Sohrab's kite runner, and for the first time Sohrab smiles for Amir.

The Kite Runner Quotes

"There is a way to be good again." (Pg. 2) This is said by Rahim Khan to Amir to encourage him to help Hassan's son escape Afghanistan and finally redeem himself.

"I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.", Said by Amir, story opener that talks about the time he betrayed his best friend Hassan in an alley in Kabul.

"There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break."

"For you, a thousand times over." (Pg. 2) This is said by Hassan to Amir as Hassan runs his last kite, the prized blue one that would earn Amir his Baba's praises. Years later, Amir still remembers these words when he thinks of Hassan.

"I brought Hassan's son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty."

"Because when spring comes it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting" (Pg. 372) Refering to the smile on Sohrab's face, the first one seen in America.

"I had been the entitled half, the society-approved, legitimate half, the unwitting embodiment of Baba's guilt. I looked at Hassan, showing those two missing front teeth, sunlight slanting on his face. Baba's other half. The unentitled, under-priveleged half. The half who had inherited what had been pure and noble in Baba. The half that, maybe, in the most secret recesses of his heart, Baba had thought of as his true son." p.359

"I looked down at Sohrab. One corner of his mouth had curled up just so. A smile. Lopsided. Hardly there. But there." (p.370)

Study Questions and Essay Topics

The novel begins 'I became what I am today at the age of twelve'. To what is Amir referring? Is his assertion entirely true? What other factors have helped form his character? How would you describe Amir?

Amir had never thought of Hassan as his friend, despite the evident bond between them, just as Baba did not think of Ali as his friend (page 35). What parallels can be drawn between Amir and Hassan's relationship, and Baba and Ali's? How would you describe the relationship between the two boys? What makes them so different in the way they behave with each other? What is it that makes Amir inflict small cruelties on Hassan? Had you already guessed at the true relationship between them? If so, at what point and why?

It is Amir's dearest wish to please his father. To what extent does he succeed in doing so and at what cost? What kind of man is Baba? How would you describe his relationship with Amir, and with Hassan? How does that relationship change and what prompts those changes?

Khaled Hosseini vividly describes Afghanistan, both the privileged world of Amir's childhood and the stricken country under the Taliban. How did his descriptions differ from ideas that you may already have had about Afghanistan? What cultural differences become evident in the American passages of the novel? How easy do the Afghans find it to settle in the US?

After Soraya tells Amir about her past, she says 'I'm so lucky to have found you. You're so different from every Afghan guy I've met' (page 157). What do you think of the reasons that Amir puts forward for this? Could there be others? How do Afghan women fare in America? Are they any better off than they were in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power?

On the drive to Kabul Farid says to Amir 'You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it.' (page 204) What is Farid implying? What do you think of his implication? Amir feels that he is 'home again' (page 210) but how well does he know or understand his country?

How does Hosseini succeed in bringing the horror of the Taliban to life? Why did he choose the role for Assef that he did?

'There is a way to be good again' (page 2) promises Rahim Khan, a phrase which resonates throughout the novel. Does this prove to be the case for Amir? How important is Rahim Khan to him?

After reading Amir's story Rahim Khan writes to him: 'the most impressive thing about your story is that it has irony.' (page 28). It is surely an irony that Hassan, whose ignorance Amir pillories, points out that there was no need for the man to kill his wife to weep tears, he could simply have smelled an onion. How important is irony in the book? Were their other instances that particularly struck you?

How significant is the tale of Rostam and Sohrab? What does it mean to Hassan, and to Amir?

How important is religion in the book? What attitudes do the main characters have to it? How do they compare to the popular Western idea of Islam?

What is the significance of kites in the book? What do you think they symbolise? Who is the eponymous kite runner? What is the significance of the kite scenes appearing at both the beginning and end of the novel?

"The past is always there"- Give three examples of how this shown in the Kite Runner

Why do you think Khaled Hosseini wrote the Kite Runner?

How did saving Sohrab allow Amir to forgive himself?

Did Amir atone for his lack of action in defending Hassan later in the Novel?

External links

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Created by Penguin Books

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"kite Runner" Worksheets & Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers

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Browse "kite runner" resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Pashtuns are the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan and make up about half of the population. They are typically characterized by their use of the Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct.The Pashtuns are the highest ethnicity on the social ladder and dominate governmental bodies. They are mainly Sunni Muslims.
The Kite Runner
Introduction to
Setting
Kabul City, Afghanistan
1960s
Afghanistan is famous for its mountain ranges. In fact, its capital city,
Kabul, is divided by mountains. This city of nearly 4 million people
is divided by the TV mountain that runs through its center.
What happens in 2001?
A brief history:
http://ti.me/rASiEf
hazara boy
pashtun boy
Characters
Kite Flying in Afghanistan
understanding a cultural tradition

Accounting for up to one-fifth of Afghanistan's population, Hazaras have long been branded outsiders. They are largely Shiite Muslims in an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country. They have a reputation for industriousness yet work the least desirable jobs. Their Asian features - narrow eyes, flat noses, broad cheeks - have set them apart in a unofficial lower caste, reminded so often of their inferiority that some accept it as truth.
The Outsiders
Pashtun People
Hear from the Author:
Khaled Hosseini
Interview
http://bit.ly/sdndCz
http://bit.ly/v4GyUU
http://bit.ly/sF4K3z
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=1358775&m=1358776
So let's get reading!

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Pashtuns are the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan and make up about half of the population. They are typically characterized by their use of the Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct.The Pashtuns are the highest ethnicity on the social ladder and dominate governmental bodies.

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Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini is also a U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

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The latest from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini responds to the heartbreak of the current refugee crisis with this beautifully illustrated short work of fiction for people of all ages, all over the world. "Hosseini's writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench, and our emotions reel."...

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Khaled Hosseini, M.D. | Academy of Achievement

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Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner has become an international publishing phenomenon and a modern classic. This tale of childhood innocence betrayed, set against three tragic decades in the history of Afghanistan, gave readers around the world an insight into the human truth behind the headlines.

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Last week on Krystal Clear we discussed the book "And the Mountains Echoed," the latest work by Khaled Hosseini, the New York Times best-selling author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns." The book is now out in paperback.

Last week we asked you what questions you had for Khaled about his latest work and his work as an author. Now, Khaled Hosseni has responded to your questions! Read on for his answers.
LB:
I see that you left Kabul in 1980 - What major occurrences have taken place there since then that have had the greatest impact on your novels?
Khaled Hosseini:
You would have to begin with the Soviet war, which began in 1979, three years after I left Kabul. No inquiry of modern day Afghanistan can be taken seriously if it does not begin with the Russian war. That war changed the face of Afghanistan, and the lives of millions of Afghans. Without the Russian war, a million people don't die, millions don't become uprooted, cities and villages are not destroyed, state institutions are not ravaged, we have no warlords, no civil war, no massive influx of Islamists, and likely no Taliban. The domino effect of that war is dizzying.
Jonathan Dariyanani (Krystal's husband):
First of all, what a lyrical, haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking book. The book deals with a number of characters who choose between personal ambition and very physical care of an injured person, wrapped up in cultural and humanistic obligations. It almost seems central to the narrative, this idea of fulfillment in life through tending gently to other people's physical needs as their bodies deteriorate. I think of this as your response to the cruelty that seems to thread through some of the characters in this work, as if this may be the way to adjust the universal balance when faced with cruelty. Could you comment a little bit on this question and the role of physical infinity, deformation, stroke, decay and illness as it informs your work?
Khaled Hosseini:
You write about things that feel pertinent and urgent to you, and that varies depending on what stage of life you are going through. The Kite Runner examined the father-son relationship, at a time when my father had received some bad medical news. By the time I finished And The Mountains Echoed, this idea of decay, illness, the inevitability of decline, it had all become part of my own life in a very personal way. It was no longer something that happened to other, less fortunate families. By then, I had lost several relatives and my father as well, who succumbed at last after a long and painful battle. That reality, the enormity of that painful experience loomed very large in my mind as I was writing this book and I think there was essentially inevitable that it would spill into the story.
Haleh Kanani:
I'm wondering what made you decide to tell this story from multiple perspectives instead of just exploring one. I thought that it was an interesting choice--was your intention to make the narrative more ambiguous?
Khaled Hosseini:
My intent from the start was to write something with both the heft and the arc of a novel. I never meant this book to be a collection of stories. For a brief time, it took the course of a more traditional, linear novel. But I discovered, as I went on, that that a whole host of characters were taking shape in my mind and crying out for their stories to be told -Nabi, in particular, as well as Nila, and Parwana. Each demanded his or her own place at the table. I became intrigued by a large number of characters and felt compelled to explore the journey for each of them. This was a feat that proved impossible with a traditional linear structure. The end result is that each chapter stands more or less on its own and is structurally complete, but each also augments and illuminates part of a much bigger story, a little like listening to one specific voice in a choir and then another and then another, until there is a sense of all the different voices joining and creating a single, cumulative song. I wanted each chapter to provide answers to questions raised earlier in the book, each to reveal epiphanies both minor and major, and each chapter to be better understood and appreciated if you had read the previous ones. The intent -to what extent I succeeded is of course up to my readers- was to create a better whole from a series of units that are, to varying extents, free-standing and complete.
CR:
What inspired you to write this book?
Khaled Hosseini:
I read a news story in 2008 about impoverished Afghan families who were trying to survive what had turned out to be a brutal winter in Afghanistan (winters are very harsh in Afghanistan and routinely claim the lives of young children, especially among the poor who cannot protect their kids from exposure due to lack of proper clothing, shelter, etc. As a result, this story said, some families had resorted to selling some of their children to wealthy people in Kabul, to give those children a better life and to acquire money to support the remainder of their families. As a father myself, this story touched me deeply. I thought a lot about the Sophie's Choice type of mental anguish that those parents must have experienced. I could not imagine making such a decision or how one even makes it.

And the Mountains Echoed began with three characters that popped into my head almost fully delivered: A man walking across the desert pulling a wagon containing a little girl, and there was a boy shadowing them. It came with perfect clarity. So I began to explore who these people were and what their story was, and immediately I linked it to the story of people selling their children that winter of 2008. The trip to Kabul for those three characters (father and his two children) became then the central event, the lynchpin for all that happens later in the book.

Name a few of your favorite books that everyone should read in their lifetime.
Khaled Hosseini:
Wow. I always struggle with this because there are so many great books and it seems arbitrary almost to include one and not the other. Given the inherent flaw of such lists, here is a very flawed one, in no particular order:
The Great Gatsby The Grapes of Wrath Slaughter House Five Midnights' Children Animal Farm The Things They carried The Good Soldiers
Shahnameh (book of kings)

Anything by either Rumi or Saadi or Hafez or Khayyam

Anything by Alice Munro
Interpreter of Maladies
And many more...
Alan Bumgarner:
Loved the book. What made you tell the story of And The Mountains Echoed through siblings? Did any elements of your relationship with your own siblings make it into the book?
Khaled Hosseini:
I have four siblings of my own (I am the oldest), and I am very close to each of them. Thankfully we are all, now in our middle age, very close and have solid relationships. But siblingship has such powerful dynamics, all those early, transformative life experiences that are shared between siblings, experiences that affect each brother or sister in his or her own way and create bonds rich with drama, contradiction, envy, pettiness, love, rivalry, generosity, betrayal, in short all the elements that make for great storytelling. I would never reveal whether any one specific thing in the book was inspired by my personal relationship with my own siblings, but certainly growing up as the eldest of five was an education in the nature of this powerful relationship.

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Last week on Krystal Clear we discussed the book "And the Mountains Echoed," the latest work by Khaled Hosseini, the New York Times best-selling author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns." The book is now out in paperback.

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Host Liane Hansen speaks with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner (Riverhead Books, 2003), a new novel about a young boy who flees Afghanistan for America, but cannot forget the friend he left behind to suffer under the Taliban.

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Host Liane Hansen speaks with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner (Riverhead Books, 2003), a new novel about a young boy who flees Afghanistan for America, but cannot forget the friend he left behind to suffer under the Taliban.

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Afghanistan Travel Guide | National Geographic

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National Geographic's latest travel stories about Afghanistan

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Four boy actors in the movie "The Kite Runner" have left Afghanistan out of concern they could be ostracized or subjected to violence because of a rape scene in the movie, a film executive said.

"The Kite Runner," which had its world premiere on Tuesday in Hollywood, is based on the 2003 best-selling novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini. In the story, the main character witnesses the rape of his friend but does nothing to stop it.

Although the film is not scheduled for release in Afghanistan, there are concerns that pirated DVDs could reach Kabul and some residents might react violently to the rape scene.

The four boys, each accompanied by a relative, left Afghanistan and arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, said Megan Colligan, executive vice president of marketing for Paramount Vantage, which is releasing the film.

Studio executives felt they should get the boys out of the country before "The Kite Runner" opens Dec. 14 in the United States, Colligan said.

"We knew they were well, but they were anxious about what would happen when the film came out," Colligan said. "We were told that what really might trigger any sort of reaction would be pirated copies of the film entering the country, which could set off widespread rumors about the content."

In September, the father of one of the boys told The Associated Press he had asked that the rape scene be cut from the film. Ahmad Jaan Mahmidzada said he had been assured it would not be included.

But the film's producers, Bennett Walsh and Rebecca Yeldham, said they were surprised by the Mahmidzada's comments at the time, adding that they had already spoken with the families of the actors and addressed their concerns about the scene.

"The Kite Runner," originally scheduled for Nov. 2 release, was delayed six weeks so that the boy actors could leave Kabul.

"The reason the decision was made was for the safety of the boys. Everything else is secondary to that," actor Khalid Abdalla said at the premiere Tuesday in Los Angeles. "Clearly there is a controversy, but I think it's overblown, and I think it needed time to rest a little bit."

Shaun Toub, another actor, said the boys were very excited about "The Kite Runner" during the filming, but violence and instability have since escalated in the country.

"Unfortunately things have deteriorated over there, so it has been a very awkward position for us," Toub said.

"At the same time, we hope that this film will shed some light on a country that needs it so badly, because these guys have been through so much. And, amazing enough, you talk to them, they're still so optimistic that tomorrow will be better."

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'Kite Runner' boys leave Afghanistan for safety

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Four boy actors in the movie "The Kite Runner" have left Afghanistan out of concern they could be ostracized or subjected to violence because of a rape scene in the movie, a film executive said."The Kite Runner," which had its world premiere on Tuesday in Hollywood, is based on the 2003 best-selling novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini.

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"The Kite Runner" filmmakers strove for authenticity when they shot the adaptation of the best-selling novel, featuring a largely unknown cast of actors and having some dialogue in Dari (an Afghan language).

But they stumbled into an international controversy when the child actors said they feared being harmed by Afghans offended by a rape scene.

The film's theatrical debut was delayed six weeks (now Friday) to allow four boys to get out of Kabul, underscoring the political and financial risks filmmakers take when they make movies in conflict zones.

"The Kite Runner," based on the 2003 novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, is about two boys whose friendship in 1970s Kabul is torn by betrayal and ethnic rivalry. The film spans three decades - from before the Soviet invasion to the rise of the Taliban - and tells the plight of Afghan refugees as well as those who stayed in the country as it was ravaged by civil war.

But the turning point - when the main character Amir does nothing to stop the rape of his friend Hassan - took center stage after the film wrapped.

Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, who plays the role of young Hassan, told reporters that he feared he and his family could be ostracized or even attacked because of the scene. The boy, now 13, said he was reluctant to do the scene.

The film's producers, Bennett Walsh and Rebecca Yeldham, have said the child actors and their families told them they were comfortable with it.

Hosseini said the children were cast during a more stable time in Afghanistan, and he believed their concern arose as violence escalated in the last year.

"When the children were cast, if I thought that they might be victims of violence because of participating in this movie, we would have chosen children from outside this country," Hosseini said in a recent interview.

The author first returned to his native country in 2003, and felt safer then than he did two months ago, when he made a second trip as a goodwill envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "Now, especially in public places, you always have that unease," Hosseini said.

Children moved for their protection Paramount Pictures, the studio distributing "The Kite Runner," sought the help of regional experts and dispatched a consultant to the area as it kept an eye on the political situation in Afghanistan.

It decided to delay the film's release so that Ahmad Khan and three other child actors could be moved to the United Arab Emirates as a precaution.

A consultant for a company that provides risk and insurance services to entertainment companies said such measures could be "extremely costly" for the studio.

"If a production does not absolutely have to film in or near a conflicted area, it's strongly suggested that they do not," said John Hamby, a managing director of Marsh Inc.

The risks include the security of the cast and crew, the possibility that local officials or critics could confiscate equipment or film - or worse, shut down production - if they don't agree with the film's content, Hamby said.

Sylvester Stallone said in an October interview that he and his movie crew came under fire and were in jeopardy while filming "John Rambo" along the Thailand-Myanmar border this year. Shots were fired over the heads of crew members and they had to travel by boat because trails were heavily mined.

"The Kite Runner" was mostly shot in Kashgar, China, near the Afghanistan border because its landscape and architecture resembles Kabul in the 1970s. Hosseini said that when he visited the film set, he was struck by the similarities with the Kabul of his youth.

He said the movie is faithful to his novel.

"Art is supposed to reflect the reality of the world and I try to write these books as truthfully as I could," Hosseini said.

He added that he saw the movie as an opportunity for Afghans to tell their stories, and that it would have been "disingenuous" to have non-Afghans to play certain roles.

"Just seeing the way the audience connect with these children and falling in love with them - it's very powerful," he said.

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'Kite Runner' stirs up controversy with rape

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"The Kite Runner" filmmakers strove for authenticity when they shot the adaptation of the best-selling novel, featuring a largely unknown cast of actors and having some dialogue in Dari (an Afghan language). But they stumbled into an international controversy when the child actors said they feared being harmed by Afghans offended by a rape scene.

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Afghanistan has banned the import and exhibition of "The Kite Runner," a film about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys, on the grounds that it could incite violence.

The U.S. studio behind "The Kite Runner," based on the 2003 best-selling novel by U.S.-based Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, last year had to get its three young stars out of their homeland before the movie debut to protect them from a possible backlash.

Paramount Vantage released the film last month after delays due to the extraordinary precautions taken to address concerns about the film's depiction of one boy's rape and other scenes of conflict between members of Pashtun and Hazara tribes.

Protests erupted last year after pirate copies of another film, "The Kabul Express" which was seen as anti-Hazara, made their way into the multi-ethnic country that is struggling to emerge from decades of invasion and civil war.

The Afghan government, whose power does not extend much beyond the main cities, then banned the film, sending prices of pirate copies soaring.

"On the basis of the instruction of the Information and Culture Ministry, the "Kite Runner" film's depiction and import has been banned," Latif Ahmadi, the head of state-run Afghan Film told Reuters late on Monday.

"Because some of its scenes are questionable and unacceptable for some people and would cause sensitiveness and would cause trouble for the government and people," he added.

"Kite Runner" explores Afghan society over three decades, from before the Soviet invasion through the rise of the Taliban, focusing on the friendship between Amir, the son of a wealthy Pashtun, and Hassan, the Hazara son of Amir's father's servant.

In one controversial scene, Hassan is raped in an alley by a Pashtun bully. A third character, Sohrab, is later forced to perform an erotic dance by a corrupt Taliban official.

Ahmad Jaan Mahmoodzada, father of Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada who plays Hassan, has said in media interviews that he was not informed about the rape scene until just before it was shot.

The producers dispute this, saying he was told about the scene well in advance and consented. The rape scene is considered inflammatory and anti-Islamic in Afghan society.

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Afghanistan has banned the import and exhibition of "The Kite Runner," a film about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys, on the grounds that it could incite violence. The U.S.

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Best-selling author of "The Kite Runner" Khaled Hosseini joins David to discuss his vision for Afghanistan and new book "And the Mountains Echoed."

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Article about authors and how they coped with rejection.

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Samantha Shannon's "The Bone Season" is the first pick for the new TODAY Book Club. Read exclusive excerpt and RSVP to join a Google Hangout with Shannon and Natalie Morales on September 16. Keep up with the TODAY Book Club by subscribing to our newsletter and follow @TODAYsBooks for book club conversation starters and special free giveaways. Tweet your insights and favorite quotes using the hashtag #TODAYBookClub.

The publishing industry is a brutal business, and even the most talented writers experience the heartbreak of rejection.

Take for instance 21-year-old publishing wunderkind Samantha Shannon, whose debut novel "The Bone Season" is TODAY's first book club pick. Not too long ago, 10 agents declined to represent her first manuscript.
Related: The next Rowling? 'Bone Season' author, 21, on surprise success
Shannon persisted because she felt called to write "The Bone Season." "It just came to me so strong, I had to tell it," she said.

That persistence is a common refrain amongst authors who endured numerous setbacks early in their careers.

James Patterson, known for his popular Alex Cross series, told TODAY.com, "I always thought it was presumptuous to think I could make a living writing. I just wanted to do it. Why do I keep doing it? Because I love to tell stories."

Thirty-one publishers said no to Patterson's first novel, "The Thomas Berryman Number," but it eventually won a prestigious Edgar Award for mystery writing in 1977. Since then, Patterson has authored dozens of books in several genres, many of them best-sellers.
Related: Early bloomers: Authors who blossomed to fame by 25
Mary Higgins Clark, the author of dozens of best-selling thrillers, spent six years trying to publish her first short story in the 1950s. Forty rejection letters later, she sold it to a magazine for $100 and framed that first acceptance letter. Fast forward to the 1990s, Higgins Clark snagged a $64 million book deal with Simon and Schuster.

"I was absolutely convinced I was going to make it," Higgins Clark told TODAY.com. "Every rejection slip made me that much more determined."

While it's hard to say what the exact odds are of getting a book deal, the truth is, it's a tough business -- even for those with talent.

"Most writers who want to publish books do not get published," said Rachel Mannheimer, Bloomsbury's U.S. editor for Samantha Shannon. "And there can be so many reasons for that, beyond whether the writing is good - or 'good' in the sense of appealing to the taste of a few specific people!"

Khaled Hosseini, author of three novels including the critically acclaimed international best-seller "The Kite Runner," which was turned into a film, said that writing has always been a "compulsion." He thought doing it professionally was akin to being an astronaut - a nearly impossible feat. He set his expectations of landing an agent for "The Kite Runner" accordingly low, and was rejected more than two dozen times before finding a match.

When author Rebecca Skloot first circulated her proposal for the non-fiction book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," plenty of editors turned her down. Some said they just couldn't envision a broad audience for a book about one unknown woman's cells and how they changed medicine forever. The book, Skloot's first, was published in 2010 and has spent more than three years on the bestseller list.

Skloot spent 11 years reporting and writing "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." She even started the process anew after the proposal sold to a publisher, but an unexpected turn of events paired her with an editor who wanted to remove key characters. Rather than fundamentally change the book, she fought for more than a year to leave her contract and find a new publisher.

"Here's this story that's important for me to tell," she said. "When I have something to fight for, I fight really hard. No one's going to tell me I can't publish something."

As for the many rejection letters, Skloot assembled the best in a collage in her office alongside mementos of the book's massive success, including a framed copy of the millionth print. It's a rather sweet victory compared to notes from editors who doubted Skloot's vision.

"I always felt like from the beginning that they were wrong," she said. "The [collage] is a reminder of why it's important to fight for what you believe in."

Yet, even commercial success doesn't completely free writers from the specter of rejection. There are still negative reviews, failed television or movie options and the possibility that a once loyal audience might abandon them.

After a decades-long career, Higgins Clark still worries that she'll disappoint her fans. "Readers are smart, and they will say 'I used to like her, but she's just not the same anymore,'" she said. "You've got to tell a fresh story."

She also pays heed if critical reviews point out similar flaws in her work, but tries to balance that responsiveness with a knowledge that someone will gripe. "You will always get some negative reviews," said Higgins Clark. "Very few people can escape it -- maybe the Bible did."

Patterson, whose Alex Cross books have been made into three major films, said Hollywood continues to offer up one rejection after another. "Life is good, but that doesn't mean everything goes your way," he said. "It's easier to shrug and smile now. You get accustomed to it."

Hosseini advises aspiring writers to prepare for inevitable rejection, but on their own terms.

"I tell them first to make sure to write the single best book they can," he said. "To leave no room for doubt in themselves. Then you can go out with peace of mind and let other people react to your book. And be ready [by knowing] what may speak to you may not speak to a whole lot of people."

If no one expresses interest in your book, he said, it's time to ask why, and accept that it may not be published. But that shouldn't necessarily spell defeat for a writer - and Samantha Shannon agrees.

"If you're going to be in this industry, you have to be thick-skinned and be able to take criticism," she said. "Just use that to learn and keep writing."
Vidya Rao contributed to this story.

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'Fight for what you believe in': How best-selling authors battled rejection

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Samantha Shannon's "The Bone Season" is the first pick for the new TODAY Book Club. Read an exclusive excerpt and RSVP to join a Google Hangout with Shannon and Natalie Morales on September 16. Keep up with the TODAY Book Club by subscribing to our newsletter and follow @TODAYsBooks for book club conversation starters and special free giveaways.

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Iowa Soldiers Remember Afghanistan | PBS LearningMedia

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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 sparked a response that came to be known as the Global War on Terror. This included military operations in Afghanistan to dismantle terrorist networks, disable enemy forces and help Afghan leaders take control of their country. Led by full-time U.S.