Oppression Of Women In The Kite Runner Analysis

“O womenfolk, if you know the rights that your husband have over you, everyone of you would wipe the dust from her husband’s feet with her face.” (Al-Hashimi)

Throughout the history, Islamic women have been an embodiment of oppression and violence. As they call woman the “second sex’’, women in Afghan are doubly outcaste: one, as a woman, two, as woman of Islam. Women getting murdered, raped, looted, ostracized is a common sight in the country like Afghan. Particularly, the post- Taliban era brought home the onslaught of patriarchy and “Islamic laws” in their full form. Women, then, became the archetype of the Taliban “values and customs”, which were essentially bathed in blood. The veil (‘burqa’), child marriage,

The Kite Runner is more about the friction between the Hazaras and the Pashtuns. Nevertheless, the story knits the women within the fabric. Their presence is mostly absent, yet one can see the hints towards the situations in which women are located. Many critics believe the paucity of the women characters as anti-feminist or anti-women. Though, Hosseini wants the reader to see gender and caste struggles in the story. Rape is a recurrent motif in the novel. However, it happens to the Hazara men, first to Hassan and later to his son, Sohrab. Also, another rape of a woman happens when Baba and Amir are on their journey to Pakistan. There is also the element of patriarchy, reflected through the character of General Taheri. He does not allow his daughter, Jamila to sing inspite the fact she was once so famous for her voice. Jamila, too, displays the acceptance of the cultural and social limitations for her sex. Additionally, Amir boasts of going to a killing spree and Soraya would still approve of her, as every “woman needs a

Along with illiteracy and ignorance, the Taliban ensures the apartheid among gender. The Taliban leaders believed that if they gave women the right to be educated or any other freedom, they would lose the authority of their rank. The Taliban’s rigid principles were not only the revival of the Islamic laws; it was their internal political battle. The madarassa sphere thus became a powerful symbol of manhood and a reassertion of the students’ commitment to jihad. By controlling women’s bodies and denying them rights of freedom, Taliban gained a false legitimacy for themselves.