Persecution In The Kite Runner

Genocide and Persecution

Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that each individual has the right to life, liberty and security, there have been numerous occasions where this has been disregarded. One repeated offense that defies this natural right is the act of genocide. Genocide, or the systematic killing of a people, is an action taken to attempt to mass murder a specific ethnic or national group. Since the 1990’s, the Kurds in Iraq have undergone the Al-Anfal Campaign- a plan to execute hundreds of thousands of people during the Iran-Iraq War. Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner intertwines themes of ethnic discrimination and genocide with the repeated acts of violence against the Hazaras throughout Afghanistan.

During the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan the ethnic group of Hazaras were violently and immorally persecuted. This persecution and discrimination evolved to be more violent, leading to Hazara massacres where the military would attack Hazara land and commit war crimes of rape, torture and other abuses. This persecution is sufficiently evident in The Kite Runner. The Hazaras faced denial of their basic civil rights in political, economical and social areas. Focusing on social inequalities, in this time period, children were influenced by the social class of their parents and the desired ideal of wiping out an entire group of people, “If idiots like you and your father didn’t take people in we’d be rid of them by now. They’d all just rot in Hazarjot where they belong,” (Hosseini 41). Assef, a Pashtun repeatedly encourages Amir to refrain from befriending and supporting Hassan, a Hazara. While Amir is aware of the social differences between himself and Hassan, he had never been in support of the “‘Ethnic cleansing,’ Assef murmured, tasting the words,” (Hosseini 244) that other members of his ethnic identity had supported. At this time, the minority of the Hazaras were persecuted and targeted for their ethnicity. This inequality standard represented the struggle Amir faced throughout the novel. As he grew older, the challenges that arose along with the association with a Hazara increased. Therefore, Amir began to question the power of belief that: “’Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our Watan. They dirty our blood.’ He made a sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hands. ‘Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That’s my vision.’” (Hosseini 40). The social inequality and ethnic difference ultimately leads Amir to take actions