This quote shows that Amir sees Hassan as a servant rather than a friend. He will not say that to his face, but Amir thinks about it daily. This idea directly correlates to the servant culture in Afghanistan.

"Religion has long played a paramount role in Afghanistan's daily life and social customs" (Brittanica).

This quote shows that religion played an essential role in the hierarchy. Those who were Shi'a Islam were lower in class and were most likely servants. They did not have as many rights as the Sunnis and were sometimes treated poorly by their owners. This idea is shown in the book, where Hassan is a servant because of his religion.

"Hospitality is an integral part of Afghan culture, with the best food being served for guests, always following a cup of delicious tea. Tea is drunk multiple times daily, offered to all guests, and most families have their recipe" (Afghan Culture).

This quote shows how significant hospitality is in Afghanistan's culture. It correlates to the story and the idea of how the family took care of Hassan. He is shown to be Baba's son later in the book, but even before that, Amir treats him with respect most of the time.

Weinbaum, Marvin G., Dupree, Nancy Hatch, Petrov, Victor P., Allchin, Frank Raymond, Ali, Mohammad and Dupree, Louis. "Afghanistan". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan. Accessed 9 September 2024.

What is culture like in Afghanistan? (n.d.). Afghanaid. Retrieved from https://www.afghanaid.org.uk/afghan-culture

Constant fear of the Taliban 

MENTAL HEALTH 

What has the Taliban done to the Afghan’s mental health when they see the killing of many people including their family members and the fear of doing something wrong get you killed? What are the links between war and mental health?

All of the people in Afghanistan during the late 1990s and early 2000s had to deal with some sort of but “Mental health problems and psychological distress show higher risks for women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and youth.” This shows us that if you are a woman or not one of the majority, it will be harder for you in all aspects, than a man or in the majority. We could see this in the book when Amir gets to sleep in, and gets to go to school, while Hassan has to get up early and clean the house for Amir, and doesn’t get to be educated.   

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10375890/) 

In Afghanistan people who are mentally struggling from their regret, researches show that “Afghans saw clear links between health, lives and livelihoods: poor mental health was linked to war-related violence and the loss of loved ones, as well as the broken economy, inadequate shelter, poor education opportunities and insecure governance.” We can see in the book how Hassan deals with his mom leaving by trying to forget she was there, which is not a good way to deal with sorrow. 

Citations:

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, 2003. 

Bureau, US Census. “National Poverty in America Awareness Month: January 2024.” Census.Gov, 4 Jan. 2024, www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/poverty-awareness-month.html#:~:text=Official%20Poverty%20Measure,decreased%20between%202021%20and%202022. 

Van. “Afghanistan: Poverty.” Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, 6 May 2024, www.adb.org/where-we-work/afghanistan/poverty#:~:text=Poverty%20Data%3A%20Afghanistan&text=In%20Afghanistan%2C%2054.5%25%20of%20the,die%20before%20their%205th%20birthday. 

Friden, Liz, and Fox News. “Afghan Child Remains in Limbo after Appeals Court Voids U.S. Marine’s Adoption.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 17 July 2024, www.foxnews.com/us/afghan-child-remains-limbo-appeals-court-voids-u-s-marines-adoption. 

Davenport, Dawn. “Why We Should Not Talk about Adopting an Afghan ‘Orphan.’” Creating a Family, 28 Nov. 2022, creatingafamily.org/adoption-category/adoption-blog/why-we-should-not-talk-about-adopting-an-afghan-orphan/. 

Chapter 9 page 106

""we are leaving,agha sahib," Ali said. "What?" Baba said, the color draining from his face."

"Hasan's reply was a single word, delivered in a thin raspy voice: Yes". Hasan says this admitting to stealing a watch from baba when he never even stole it. This example of Hasan being so unselfish and taking the blame for his friend is a perfect example of friendship. Hasan would put amir first before himself. "People with no friends or poor-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely, according to Holt-Lunstad’s meta-analysis of more than 308,000 people—a risk factor even greater than the effects of smoking 20 cigarettes per day.(PLOS Medicine, Vol. 7, No. 7, 2010). A big part of friendship is unselfishness, to realize when being around friends that your opinion and thoughts are not more valuable then your friends can strengthen relations.

sources

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/06/cover-story-science-friendship

The Kite Runner

1 afhgan Afghani=3. 97 Pakistan ruppee

1 pakistan rupee=.0036 usd

When the two subsects split early in time there were many chacteristics that differentiated the two, but it was mainly their beliefs that seperated them. These beliefs were on who is Muhhamad’s true successor. The Sunni muslims believe that his successor should be someone in his family but the Shia muslims believe that it should be anyone who will follow the lead of Muhhamad (Chuck). The way that this connects to the book is because Hassan is a Hazara which is also known as a Shia and the reason this is significant to the book is because the whole reason Hassan was being picked on was because he was a Shia muslim in a predominatley Sunni muslim area.

Chuck, Elizabeth. “What Are the Differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims?” NBC News, NBC News, 5 Jan. 2016, www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/what-are-differences-between-sunni-shiite-muslims-n489951.

Pruitt, Sarah. “Islam’s Sunni-Shia Divide, Explained.” HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 31 July 2019, www.history.com/news/sunni-shia-divide-islam-muslim.

Citations:

"Sunni." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 17 Sep. 2019. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Sunni/70378. Accessed 9 Sep. 2024.

"Iraq." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 19 Apr. 2024. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Iraq/106326#232259.toc. Accessed 9 Sep. 2024.

"I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past—and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran." (Page 77)

"The conceptualization of the regret emotion states that individuals experience discomfort when they contemplate,

postpurchase, that a forgone alternative might have led to a better situation."

"Regret can be defined as a rational emotion in thesense that its presence seems to be correlated with

improved decision-making."

Regret, regret is a very common characteristic in life. Regret happens when somone has a deep emeotion and feeling about something that has happened that they feel badly about. Something that they wish they could take back. In the kite runner regret is a important theme in the book. My topic idea: Long term dramatic impact on regret shows up many times especially when Amir watched Hassan get buillied and did nothing about it. As readers, we know that Amir had regret all throughout the book as he says many times like in the quote above even calling himself a coward.

Sources:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40538195?searchText

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27821050?searchText=Impacts+of+regret

The Kite Runner

In The Kite Runner when Amir goes to the stadium to talk to the Taliban he has to witness a women getting stoned. Stoning is a ritual that is practiced when one sins. The Taliban leader says that "Every sinner must be punished befitting his sin" (Hosseini 270,271). They killed the women because she cheated on her husband.

Women were often brutally beaten and killed for disobeying the Taliban. Other countries have tried intervening but the Taliban barely changes.

Works Cited

Feminist Majority Foundation. “The Taliban & Afghan Women – Feminist Majority Foundation.” Feminist Majority Foundation, 2021, feminist.org/our-work/afghan-women-and-girls/the-taliban-afghan-women/.

Popalzai, Ehsan. “Taliban Bans Women from Solo, Long-Distance Road Trips in Afghanistan.” CNN, 28 Dec. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/asia/afghanistan-taliban-women-travel-intl/index.html.

van. “Afghanistan: Poverty.” Www.adb.org, 2021, www.adb.org/where-we-work/afghanistan/poverty#:~:text=Poverty%20Data%3A%20Afghanistan&text=In%20Afghanistan%2C%2054.5%25%20of%20the.

“Women in Afghanistan: The Back Story.” Www.amnesty.org.uk, www.amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history#:~:text=Rise%20of%20the%20Taliban%20%26%20Decline%20of%20Women.

"Poison tongues would flap. And she would bear the brunt of that poison, not me- I was fully aware of the Afghan double standard that favored my gender." (Hosseini 146)

Education for girls in Afghanistan has taken a shocking turn since the Taliban came to power. The Taliban has been constantly changing their restrictions on education. Although in March of 2022, the Taliban promised that girls would be able to return to school that was not the case. Not even two days had passed before they reversed the decision. Girls under the age of 12 were banned from school with severe punishments in place for those that broke restrictions. Furthermore, young women have been banned from higher education, with bans on women in all colleges in Afghanistan. These policies massively contradict the Taliban's goal for a more inclusive Afghanistan. Although I could not find any quotes specifically about the education of girls in Afghanistan, this quote still means a lot. Women who want to receive higher education must leave Afghanistan and potentially face harsh punishments in return. All of these changes under the Taliban go to show how much Afghanistan changed from Amir's childhood to adulthood.

"On March 21, 2022, the Taliban promised to reopen all schools in Afghanistan, seemingly ending the temporary ban it had placed on girls attending secondary school since its return to power seven months earlier.Two days later, while  many girls were enthusiastically preparing to return to school, the authorities reversed the decision and restricted girls over the age of 12 from attending state-run schools."(Barakat)

"Women and girls over 12 are banned from schools, and prevented from sitting most university entrance exams. There are also restrictions in the work they can do, with beauty salons being closed, as well as being not being able to go to parks, gyms and sport clubs."(Gillibrand)

Gillibrand, Peter. “The Women Who Escaped Afghanistan to Get an Education.” Bbc.com, BBC News, 7 Sept. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzyr318zzo.

Barakat, Sultan. “Taliban Ban on Girls’ Education Defies Both Worldly and Religious Logic.” Al Jazeera, 1 Apr. 2024, www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/1/taliban-ban-on-girls-education-defies-both-worldly-and-religious-logic.

Mr.Belson 

English B

9/7/24

The impacts of trauma cause by violence 

Throughout kite runner there are many big themes and messages  that we can learn from this novel such as guilt, anger, etc.However the impacts of trauma caused by violence in this book is another important lesson that we can pick up.In one of the most pivitoal moments of the book when Hassan is raped by Assef we get a good look of a example of this. “I ran because I was a coward.I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me.” (Hosseini 77 82)In this quote Amir has the choice to stay and help his friend or run, which he does.This decision is fueled  by fear not only of Assef but of losing his father's approval as he already struggles to live up to Baba’s expectation. This moment also shows how deeply personal fears can paralyze someone.Amir’s failure to help marks a cycle of guilt and shame that haunts him more and more overtime overall emotionally scarring him.This becomes a defining feature of his character and causes him to make more irrational decisions.

Studies show in real life that violence can cause not only physical harm but also psychology as well and victims can gain such disorders such as PTSD, depression or anxiety.It is also more common for children to be more vulnerable to it causing it to have a bigger impact on them and just last longer. “Some people who experience trauma, especially people who are younger, can having trouble processing emotion and thoughts such as anger, shame,anxiety…”This quote further shows how mental trauma can be just as harmful as physical and why it can be hard for people to recover.With amir and Hassan both being around 12 years old these descriptions perfectly fit them and further proves why their so vulnerable.

After this research we can see how the impacts of trauma caused by violence in The Kite Runner mirror the real life consequences experienced by trauma victims.This novel gives better insight on the shame, guilt and confrontation as they explore these ideas.The journey to healing involves acceptance, controlling their past trauma and finding a way to move forward.

                                SOURCES

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/#:~:text=Delayed%20responses%20to%20trauma%20can,1%20outlines%20some%20common%20reactions.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/violence

THE KITE RUNNER 

"Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage.’ ‘That’s what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?’ ‘Precisely.’ ‘In the west, they have an expression for that, I said. They call it ethnic cleansing." Kite Runner

"The estimated 1 million Afghan migrants and refugees who reside in Iran have long complained of mistreatment and discrimination. Many Afghans work in menial jobs and are blamed for crime and drug trafficking." RadioFreeLiberty

"On July 23, 2016, two suicide bombers targeted a peaceful rally at the Deh Mazang Square of Kabul. The rally was organized by a predominantly Hazara-led movement known as “Junbesh-e Roshanaye” or the Enlightenment Movement. It highlighted the growing frustration and discontent among the Hazaras regarding their share of national resources and foreign aid.[1] " CivilRights.org

This all brings up racism showed in this area, and how dominant the use of racist terminology is. Racism is hard to stand up to but it's harder to take in and let bully you.

Citations

https://www.rferl.org/a/afghans-prohibited-iranian-store-owner-punished-over-racist-shop-sign/29993593.html

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/afghanistan/report-afghanistan/

Kite Runner

Another example of immigration and its sad reality The United Nations. The United Nations was put in place a while back after WWII to support basic human rights and focuses on immigration. According to The UN, "The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimated that, by the end of 2022, the world hosted an estimated 35.3 million refugees, including 5.9 million Palestine refugees under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as well as 5.4 million were asylum-seekers". This clearly demonstrates the sad truth about warfare and how many people struggle with getting out of it.

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/migration

Citations:

“Global Migration, by the Numbers.” World Economic Forum, 10 Jan. 2020, www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/iom-global-migration-report-international-migrants-2020/#:~:text=How%20migrants%20who%20send%20money%20home%20have%20become%20a%20global. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.

Horowitz, Shel. “Opinion: The Struggle for Immigration Justice Is far from over - Amherst Indy.” AmherstINDY, 25 June 2021, www.amherstindy.org/2021/06/25/opinion-the-struggle-for-immigration-justice-is-far-from-over/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.

"I wasn't the religious type, but I had an epiphany."

The Taliban were founded by religious students during the Soviet-Afghan war. Taliban literally translates to students.