Pashtuns In The Kite Runner

The book The Kite Runner is a fantastic novel about a privileged boy named Amir who learns many life lessons because of his past and his father Baba. Ethnicity is covered throughout this book, Amir and his father are Pashtun who are Sunni Muslims. Ali and Hassan are Hazara’s and are Amir’s and Baba’s servants. Hazara’s are Shia Muslims. The book The Kite Runner covers ethnic complications between the Hazara and the Pashtuns. Early on in the book we find out about the turmoil situation between the Pashtuns and Hazara. They do not get along mostly due to ethnic and religious differences. The Pashtuns are the privileged group of people in Afghanistan and the Hazara are the oppressed and discriminated group of people. Amir, who is a Pashtun, remembers reading about the ethnic history in a book. The book states that “the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had ‘quelled them with unspeakable violence’” (Hosseini 9). In other words, the Pashtuns made the Hazara second class citizens in Afghanistan undermining their rights and privileges. The Pashtuns also use

Before the war the Pashtun were a privileged class. Afghanistan is split and Amir and Baba leave the country for a better life in America. When Amir returns to Afghanistan, he sees how the fighting destroyed everything and how the society has changed and become violent. In the book Amir’s taxi driver says, it is “terrible what is happening in your country” (Hosseini 195) Pashtun’s and Hazara people are suffering together. Eventually, the militia Taliban groups took over and civilian deaths were high. Nobody seems safe in Afghanistan and the laws enforced by the Taliban are harsh and unjust, “they don’t let you be human”(Hosseni 198) Rahim Khan told Amir. The war was bad and the Taliban regime made things worse for Afghanistan