The Kite Runner
Afghanistan
•Islamic Republic
•Hamid Karzai- President
since December 7, 2004
•Elected directly by the
people
•Independence:
August 19, 1919 from UK
Afghanistan
•Afghanistan is a landlocked
country, making the export of
goods difficult and expensive.
•It has rugged mountains and
plains and is prone to natural
disasters such as earthquakes
and drought.
•Temperatures are extreme, as
hot as 120° F in the summer
and as cold as -15° F in the
winter.
Slightly smaller than Texas
•There are limited natural fresh
water sources, and most of the
land has been overgrazed and
deforested, causing
desertification and soil
degradation, making farming
difficult.
Afghanistan History and Facts
•Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes
and founded Afghanistan in 1747.
•The country served as a buffer between the British
and Russian empires until it won independence
from British control in 1919.
Referred to as “a goat between two lions.”
•The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the
Afghan Communist party but withdrew 10 years
later under relentless pressure by internationally
supported anti-Communist mujahedin (holy warrior)
rebels.
•A civil war between mujahedin factions erupted
following the 1992 fall of the Communist regime.
•The Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored
movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's
civil war, seized Kabul in 1996, promising traditional,
Islamic values and imposing strict Islamic law,
including revoking many women’s rights..
•Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,
a US, Allied, and Northern Alliance military action
toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
US forces are still there.
•On December 7, 2004, Hamid Karzai became the
first democratically elected president of Afghanistan.
The National Assembly was inaugurated on 19
December 2005.
Afghan Countryside
•Population:
31,056,997 (July 2006 est.)
•Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 43.34 years
male: 43.16 years
female: 43.53 years (2006 est.)
•Total fertility rate:
6.69 children born/woman (2006 est.)
•Ethnic groups:
Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak
4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
•Religions:
Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, other 1%
Pashtun: largest ethnic
group, mostly farmers and
Sunni Muslims
Tajik: live mostly in the
northeast, second largest
ethnic group, mostly Sunni
Muslims
Hazara: live in the Hindu
Kush mountains, primarily
Shiite Muslims
Uzbek: live mostly along
the northern border,
mostly Sunni Muslims
Aimaqs: a farming and
herding tribe in the west,
mostly Sunni Muslims
Turkmen and Kirghiz:
nomadic herders and
craftsmen, mostly Sunni
Muslims
Baluch: nomadic tribe
living in the southern
deserts, Sunni Muslims
•Literacy:
total population: 36%
male: 51%
female: 21% (1999 est.)
•GDP - per capita (PPP): $800 (2004 est.)
•Economy dependent on foreign aid, farming, opium and
trade with neighbors
•Unemployment rate: 40% (2005 est.)
•Population below poverty line: 53% (2003)
•Climate:
arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
•Terrain:
mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest
The Afghan people are some of the poorest in the world and
are members of many different ethnic groups. This woman
is part of a herding tribe and is drying dung to use as
insulation in her home during the winter. Life is difficult for
most Afghans as they have faced drought, famine and war
for many years
Kabul City, 1960s
After 24 years of war, much of Kabul lies in ruins.
-June 2003
Issues
•Damaging earthquakes, Flooding; Droughts
•War continues
•Has 200,000-300,000 displaced people due to
drought and war
•Has serious illegal drug production problem--#1 in
opium production which makes heroin
Islam
•Islam is the world’s second largest religion, with 21% of all people
practicing this faith.
•Islam teaches that one can only find peace in life by submitting to Allah
(Almighty God) in heart, soul, and deed.
•The Quran is the holy guide to Islam.
•Major aspects of the Islamic religion include testimony of faith, prayer,
fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimage.
•“Covering” is a religious duty. Women can only have their faces and
hands showing in public. Men must not expose anything from navel to
knee.
•Sunni and Shia are the two most common forms of Islam with different
beliefs in some of the specific premises of the religion.
•One of the main distinctions between Sunni and Shi’ite faiths is that
Shi’ites follow a religious leader called an imam, who is regarded as
Mohammed’s successor and an intermediary between Allah and the
faithful.
•To calculate the Islamic year, subtract 621 years from the
western Gregorian calendar date. For example: 2003 – 621 =
1382
Taliban
Prior to 2001, the Taliban, led by Mullah
Mohammad Omar, ruled Afghanistan
under Islamic law. During this time,
women had virtually no rights and received
no education. Watching television and
listening to music were forbidden, as were
playing games and sports.
The United States entered Afghanistan in
October 2001 and replaced the Taliban
with an elected president. While the
Taliban lost some power and the people
regained some rights, the Taliban has not
gone away. Instead, it has worked to
regain power by promising to help
Afghanistan’s poorest people and aligning
itself with warlords, al-Qaida, and other
militant groups to gain financial support
and recruit new fighters.
President Hamid Karzai was the
first elected president in the
history of Afghanistan. He came
to power after the Taliban was
overthrown in late 2001. He was
formally elected to a five-year
term in 2004. Karzai has survived
numerous assassination attempts
and has been assigned the task
of rebuilding Afghanistan. Some
of the major problems he must
address include providing the
country with an infrastructure so
that citizens have the basic
necessities of life, keeping the
Taliban out of power and
controlling the warlords who
perpetuate the illegal drug trade.
FAMILY LIFE
Afghans usually live in extended families headed by an elder male, who together with
other males has formal authority over the family. People usually marry within their own
ancestral group, and tend to marry in their late teens. Since marriage affects economic,
political and social standing, it is a public decision of two families. After a marriage
contract has been signed, elaborate rituals and customs mark the formal engagement
celebration and marriage ceremony.
Afghan houses traditionally consist of a series of rooms surrounding a private,
rectangular courtyard where women play with their children, cook and socialize.
Married sons share the same compound with their parents, though often have separate
quarters for their families. Houses may also contain a special room for men to entertain
male friends. In cities, some Afghans live in apartment buildings. Nomadic Afghans
live in tents.
Traditional Afghan society segregates men and women and imposes special regulations
for women’s conduct. Husbands traditionally had the power to decide when women
could leave the house, and many women spent their adult lives in purdah (seclusion),
seeing only men from their family. The introduction of universal suffrage in 1965
dramatically changed women’s position: while they still maintained their traditional
responsibilities at home, many women, particularly in cities, moved into the workforce
and established careers in the professions. Both the Mujahidin and Taliban governments
instituted repressive measures against women, including prohibitions against women’s
education and employment. However, with the Taliban’s loss of power, women have
been regaining their old freedoms.
Northern Afghan men adore buzkashi ("grab the goat"), an ancient game that is believed
to have been developed in central Asia and is considered part of Afghan’s noble past.
While various peoples play the game, the Uzbeks are considered its champions. Played
on horseback, buzkashi may involve hundreds of players. Teams are limited to 10 men.
A headless carcass, nowadays usually from a calf, is thrown on the ground in the centre
of the circle of horsemen. At a signal, the riders rush in and each tries to lift the carcass
onto his horse, a task that alone takes great strength. Yet to score a goal, the rider with
the carcass must also gallop to a goal point (often over a mile away) through opposing
riders armed with whips, then return to the starting point and drop the calf where it was
picked up. The horses used for buzkashi are specially trained and costly.
Children’s games in Afghanistan include tag, blind-man’s buff,
kite flying and hopscotch. Girls enjoy volleyball, basketball
and playing with homemade dolls, while boys play soccer or
make slingshots. A game called buzul-bazi, similar to marbles,
uses sheep knuckle bones. In winter, Afghan children enjoy
having snowball fights. Some people also ski near Kabul.
Kite flying is more than a
pastime in Afghanistan -- it is
a national obsession. 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. Afghans have
elevated kite flying to an art
form, and one of its chief
attractions is kite fighting.
During the fight, or "jang," two kites are flown close to one
another, often to great heights. The object is then to use the wire or
glass coated string of your kite to cut the wire of your opponent's
kite to set it free and away.
When an opponent's kite is cut free, it flutters away into the far
reaches of the city. Such kites are said to be "azadi rawest," or "free
and legal," and can be retrieved by neighborhood children to fly
another day. These children are the kite runners. Each neighborhood
also crowns its own "sharti," or kite-fighting champion.
Winter is one of the most popular times for kite flying in Afghanistan. The winds are
strong, and schools are closed because of the cold weather.
- While it brings mostly smiles, kite flying is also dangerous. Many people are injured
when they fall from roofs while chasing free floating kites or when they lose
concentration and footing during a heated battle.
A kite figther named Sharif recalls the glory days of kite flying in Kabul, before the
Taliban.
"Before the Taliban, people used to fly kites in a place called Chaman-i-Babrak (in
northern Kabul), and kite flying competitions were held there. Kids, young people,
and older people from all over Afghanistan and Kabul City would gather there. They
used to lay wagers on fighting kites."
Khaled Hosseini
He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965.
His father was a diplomat with the Afghan
Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi
and History at a large high school in Kabul. In
1976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated
the Hosseini family to Paris. They were ready
to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then
Afghanistan had already witnessed a bloody
communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet
army. The Hosseinis sought and were granted
political asylum in the United States. In
September of 1980, Hosseini's family moved to
San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from
high school in 1984 and enrolled at Santa
Clara University where he earned a bachelor's
degree in Biology in 1988. The following year,
he entered the University of California-San
Diego's School of Medicine, where he earned a
Medical Degree in 1993. He completed his
residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los
Angeles. Hosseini was a practicing internist
between 1996 and 2004.
While in medical practice, Hosseini began
writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, in
March of 2001. In 2003, The Kite Runner, was
published and has since become an
international bestseller, published in 38
countries. In 2006 he was named a goodwill
envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee
Agency. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid
Suns was published in May of 2007. He lives in
northern California.
The Kite Runner is a
powerful and moving
novel set in
Afghanistan and
America. The narrator,
Amir, is the privileged
son of Baba, a rich
businessman, member
of the influential
Pashtun tribe and Suni
Muslim, who tells the
story of his friendship
with Hassan, a lowcaste ethnic Hazara
and Shi'a.
Works Cited
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/afghanistan/afghanistan.html
http://ia331317.us.archive.org/3/items/Mr.BrunsUpdatedAfghanista
nPowerpoint/Afghanistan.ppt
www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/world/afgh
anistan_overview3.ppt
http://www.kabulguide.net/kbl-bookseller.htm
http://library.syr.edu/instruction/class/sharreadKite/
Created by Becky Likin
Leigh Cockrill