The Breadwinner Sparknotes

In Afghanistan, women are deprived of education, economic liberty, and other basic freedoms. This is consistent with the life of Parvanah in The Breadwinner directed by Nora Twomes. After Parvanah's father is arrested on unfair charges, she is forced to pretend to be a boy to keep her family alive and try to get her father back. Because of the religious values of Afghanistan and the resulting treatment women receive, a gender-feminist lens is one that you can best perceive the story through. The religious values of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover heightened disparities and restrictions on the rights of women. Though religious values were integrated with Afghanistan before, the Taliban caused the rules to be more extreme, “Specific dignities

After Nurullah is taken, leaving only the women in the house, there is no man to accompany them to go outside. This means that if they were to go outside, they would be breaking the rules and would be beaten. Paravana, to get around this, pretends to be male by cutting her hair and dressing as a boy to work and buy food to keep her family alive. Testing out her new appearance, Parvana enters a local shop with a grocery list, and talks to the clerk: “I need a kilo of rice, a half kilo lentils, and a small amount of raisins.” “A small amount haha, should I go by my imagination?” “Yes.” “Not very bright this one hahahahaha!” (The Breadwinner 00:26:05-00:26:18) The man continues to make fun of Parvana as she pays and leaves; however, she smiles the whole This shows that if Parvana needs to pretend to be male so as not to starve, women in Afghanistan can’t live without a man. This is a major issue as, most of the time, if following the rules of the Taliban, a woman without a man would die. This is a prime example of how the Taliban’s oppressive rule affects women in Afghanistan. The Breadwinner, after deep analysis, is best seen through a gender-feminist