Travel in Books - Afghanistan

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Books

• 📖 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini | 🌍 Afghanistan 1970-2001

  
  

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

A story rooted in blood and soil.

The Kite Runner takes us on a journey to an Afghanistan that is now hard for me to imagine — a place where “children threw snowballs, ran, chased each other, laughed... the sound of voices and laughter echoed... rooftops were crowded with spectators lounging on canvas chairs, steam from hot tea rising from thermoses, and Ahmad Zahir’s music blaring from cassette players”.

By the time I was born, that Afghanistan — the one described in the opening pages, with blooming trees, open laughter, kites in the sky, children with childhoods, and women with rights — no longer existed. Today, it still doesn’t. And the dream of a free Afghanistan, where Afghans can live with dignity in their own land, feels more and more like a utopia.

The story of Amir and Hassan invites us into an Afghanistan of tradition, of Nang and Namoos — of honor and pride — of chaos and of love. An Afghanistan that shows us that “Afghans are a people with a strong sense of independence, who love tradition but despise rules”.

But not everything was idyllic. The narrative confronts us, with brutal honesty, with what it has always meant — and still means — to be Hazara in Afghanistan. This ethnic group, descended from Mongol soldiers who settled in the region during the time of Genghis Khan, bears centuries of discrimination. As Shi'a Muslims in a predominantly Sunni country, the Hazaras have faced relentless persecution — a fate that is determined at birth. It was never easy. Today, it’s even harder.

In Afghanistan, “the rules were simple: there were no rules. Fly your kite. Cut the other down. Good luck”.

And so, I too wish good luck to all Afghans. May you one day reclaim your Afghanistan. Free, unafraid — but above all, yours. Inshallah.

By yours,

Uncanned Sardine