1. Laila: 9 years old (now 1987), blond hair, turquoise green eyes, dimpled cheeks, high cheek bones (108), very beautiful/pretty, lives in Kabul
2. Tariq: Laila's best friend, has a prosthetic leg (stepped on a land mine when he was 5), lives in Kabul
3. Hakim ("Babi"): Laila's father, small man, slim, delicate, submissive, always reading/studying, well informed/educated and intelligent, very close with Laila, caring, university educated, works in a bread factory
4. Fariba: Hakim's wife and Laila's mother, somewhat "masculine" in that she runs the house, angry a lot, not motherly in the traditional sense, proposed to Hakim (not the other way around), depressed (often lays in bed w/the lights off all day and neglects her duties)
5. Khadim: 11 years old, tall/thick/has under bite, father is a butcher, bully
Vocab:
1. harami (110): bastard
2. Inqilabi Girl (112): Revolutionary Girl (Shanzai's nickname for Laila because she was born on the night of the coup in 1978)
3. Inquilab (112): revolution
4. Jihad (112): war
5. Aroos (128): daughter-in-law (what Tariq's family calls Laila, even though techninally they are still just friends)
6. Namaz (142): 5 daily prayers that Muslims are supposed to do according to Islamic tradition
/beliefs
7. Shaheed (142): martyrs
Notes:
*Laila's parents fight a lot, and he mother is the aggressive and dominating one, while her father is the sheepish submissive type (opposite of traditional Muslim roles)
- "But if Laila needed the lid of a candy jar forced open, she had to go to Mammy, which felt like betrayal." (109)
- Reversed gender roles that even a 9 year old girl notices (women should be the dainty ones that need help, not the head of the household) He cannot fix things like men should be able to do.
* Hakim and his family live across the street from Rasheed and Mariam
* Hakim and Fariba have two sons, Ahmad and Noor, who have gone to war (Fariba blames Hakim for allowing them to go and for allowing them to put themselves in such danger)
* Laila has a female teacher in school that is very non-traditional named Shanzai
- "On the first day of school, she had proudly told the class that she was the daughter of a poor peasant from Khost. [...] She did not cover and forbade the female students from doing it. She said women and men were equal in every way and there was no reason women should cover if men didn't." (111)
- Such talk could almost be considered heretical, and is most definitely very unorthodox. Traditionally, Islamic women were, and in many places still are, expected to cover, and to not do so was seen as disrespectful and immodest. She would have most definitely be seen as very radical and most likely would have angered many parents, especially males. Women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told, not do whatever they please, especially when it comes to breaking tradition
- She is also very supportive of the Soviets --> She is a revolutionary and tells the children to tell on any person they know to be a rebel, even it is their parents, out of the good for the country
* The children talk, jokingly, about ways to fend of unattractive suitors on the way back from school
- Even though the talk is in good fun, the idea of a suiter is on a woman's mind from a young age, and they know full well that it is very possible that they will be given to a man much older than themselves
* Babi is insistent that Laila gets a good education --> He "had made it clear to Laila from a young age that the most important thing in his life, after her safety, was her schooling." (114)
- Babi: "I want you to understand this and learn this now. Marriage can wait, education cannot. [...] You can be anything you want, Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance." (114)
- Not typical for a woman. Their formal education often takes second place to domestic education. Their role as a wife is often considered more important than their education. Even less typical for a father to push for the education of his daughter, at the same time he theoretically would have more power over her actual continuation of education than the mother.
- Babi holds a unique and somewhat revolutionary idea about women and what they are able to achieve. In a time where very few women worked outside of the house, he tells Laila she can be anything she wants to be. Not traditional at all.
* Khadim sprays Laila with urine (bully, disrespectful) --> her blonde hair sets her apart and leads to further bullying than she would otherwise have to deal with
* Whenever the women are all together, talk turns to matchmaking and setting up the different children of the neighborhood . (121)
* The war/jihad between the Soviets and the resistance is huge, bloody, and there is a lot of propaganda. The US (Reagan) is against the Soviets and helping the resistance by supplying them with missiles and shooting down the Soviet helicopters. Muslims from all over the world have joined the cause against the Soviets, and it is being said that they are close to losing the war now.
* Laila feels more at ease and at home in Tariq's home than her own. His family is welcoming, they act like a family (unlike her own), and it feels effortless and natural to her. Despite the fact that her family is Tajik and theirs is Pashtun (huge rivalry/conflict between the two groups in Afghanistan).
* Laila begins to see the dichotomy between female friends and friends of the opposite sexes. When Laila tells Tariq that she misses him, his reaction is much different than it is when she tells her girlfriends the same thing (not as acceptable).
- "In Tariq's grimace, Laila learned that boys differed from girls in this regard. They didn't make a show of friendship. They felt no urge, no need, for this sort of talk. [...] Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly." (133)
- There are different expectations regarding the way in which men and women express their feelings and handle themselves. Society's expectations for the different genders.
* Tariq beats Khadim with his prosthetic leg when he finds out that Khadim had sprayed Laila with urine. (He is protective of her)
* The Soviets sponsored literacy classes for women and promoted the education of women. (One of the few things that Babi approved of when it came to the Soviets) Also promoted more freedom for Afgani women and gave them more rights. (135)
* Description of women's roles in tribal areas (135-136): women always wear burqas and rarely go out, forced marriage, women can be married off at very young ages, very little education for women, very traditional
* A man comes to Laila's house and informs the family that their sons had been killed in action. Mammy (Fariba), blames her husband for their deaths.
* Women of the neighborhood take on the role of consoling the family when a member dies (it is their duty, and they take it seriously). They do the cooking and essentially take care of the family for a short period of time.
* Fariba becomes extremely depressed and eternally sick, although doctors can find nothing physically wrong with her. The only thing she didn't "neglect" in her life were her 5 daily prayers.
- Laila takes on all of the household responsibilities even though she is so young
- It is as if Fariba does not care about Laila at all, and she becomes only a receptacle for Fariba's stories about her two brothers (she feels neglected and ignored).
- Fariba: "Some days, I listen to that clock ticking in the hallway. Then I think of all the ticks, all the minutes, and the hours and days and weeks and months and years waiting for me. All of it without them. And I can't breathe then, like someone's stepping on my heart, Laila. I get so weak. So weak I just want to collapse somewhere." (143)
- "She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed." (144)
* Babi talks about his dream of going to America and starting over. He feels a huge amount of pain over the loss of the boys a well, and says sometimes he feels as if Laila is all he has left in the world. Unlike her mother, Babi openly expresses how much he loves her and how he wants the best for her and his family.
* Treaty signed in Geneva saying that the Soviets would remove themselves from Afghanistan within 9 months. (April 1988)Observations/Overview:
A number of new female characters were introduced during this section, which actually told the story of a family living close to Mariam and her husband, but who has few ties with them. Laila is a young child, however, due to the circumstances in which she has grown up she is mature for her age. She has been forced to take on a role in the house that would generally not be given to such a young child. She holds a very close relationship with her father, much more so than with her mother, which is somewhat uncommon in a Muslim household. She is bright and has been told from a young age that she has the potential to do anything that she wants. Her father emphasizes the importance of her education and insists that she continues on to University. Her upbringing has in many ways been different than that of other female children. She is no required to cover despite her blonde hair and light eyes. Laila, for the most part, relies on nobody other than her best friend Tariq. She feels hurt by her mother's absence in her life. Although she is physically there, her mother has chosen to distance herself from the rest of the family and is solely concerned with her two sons. After their death, she neglects all remaining responsibility and basically barricades herself in her room.
We are presented with a couple of different portrayals of women in this section. Laila's mother, Fariba, is actually somewhat similar to Mariam's mother. Although their situations are very different, both women are extremely unhappy and rather bitter. Laila's mother does not abuse her, although Fariba does verbally abuse her husband. Both women are extremely prone to depression and overrun by their emotions. This leads Mariam's mother to take her own life. Although Laila's mother says she would not go to such an extreme, it is not because she feels a duty and love for her living family. She holds on because she wants to justify the death of her sons and to see that what they died for is carried out. Even so, her life is so deteriorated that although she continues to breathe, she really loses all touch with the world and her family.
Laila is much different than her mother. She is unhappy at times, but grateful for what she has. She is in the process of learning how the world works and what is, and is not, socially acceptable. There is little that she desires more than the attention and approval of her mother, yet it does not come. However, her father and she maintain a very close relationship. In many ways, she has the upbringing of a male child. Her best friend, who she essentially does everything with, is a male. Her father has raised her to value things more often associated with males than females as well. However, she is capable of doing domestic work in the house and almost completely replaces her mother in that respect. She is strong, yet she relies on Tariq to a degree to protect her. He has readily taken on the role as her protector despite the fact he only has one leg. Their relationship is technically a friendship, yet she is more like part of their family. She feel comfortable with his family, in fact, she feels more comfortable in his home than her own. When he leaves for a month, she feels almost lost. The connection between them is obviously very strong, and the possibility of them getting married someday seems very likely. She does have a few girlfriends, and does discuss "feminine" topics with them, such as prospective husbands. However, where her friends expect to marry young, she is more concerned with education. Her priorities are different than many of her female friends.
Laila's teacher Shanzai also plays an interesting, although small, role in the book. She most definitely has not taken on the role of the typical/traditional female Muslim. She works as a teacher, rather than in the home. She is proud of her heritage, despite the fact that she comes from a very poor background. She also promotes the education of women, but most radically claims that women and men are equal. Shanzai does not allow the female students to cover their hair in the classroom, which is interesting considering many men will not allow their daughters or wives to leave the home without at least a veil. She is not submissive at all, and is quite opinionated. Despite such strong and controversial ideas, her character is not portrayed negatively at all. In fact, she seems to be portrayed in a positive light.
I believe it is important to note that not only female characters take on unconventional roles, but Babi most definitely does as well. He is progressive and absolutely not your typical Muslim male figure. He and Rasheed differ drastically. In fact, they are essentially the polar opposites. Although Babi is portrayed to have more "feminine" characteristics, such as submissivity and docility, he is portrayed in a much better light. He is caring and understanding and defends the importance of women within a society.
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