The kite runner essentially stereotypes the ethnic majority Pashtuns and is used to justify continued bombing of Afghanistan STEREOTYPING PASHTUNS Two things may contribute to the creation of a poor historical novel like the kite runner: (First) the oversimplification of historical issues (ignoring essential details of historical subjects), and (second) a perceived or broad generalization about a particular social or racial group (a stereotyping of the good and bad guys). In contrast to this, a good historical novel usually depends on the authors ability to thoroughly understand the history of the period he/she is covering. The following passages from the novel will illustrate that Pashtuns are singled out and negatively impacted, which do cause injury to their reputation (defamation innuendo). Amir is the lead character and narrator of the story. King Zaher Shah and Amirs father, both Pashtuns got behind the wheel of their fathers Ford roadster. High on Hashish and mast on French wine, they struck and killed a Hazara husband and wife on the road. (p. 24) The character Assef is Pashtun and a bully, who raped the Hazara boy Hassan. Born to a German mother and Afghan father, the blond, blue-eyed Assef towered over the other kids. He admires Hitler: About Hitler. Now, there was a leader. A great leader. A man of vision. Assefs blue eyes flicked to Hassan [the Hazara boy] and said: 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. Assef will ask the president [Prince Mohammad Daud, the founder of the Republic of Afghanistan in 1973] to do what the king[Mohammad Zaher Shah, 1933-1973] didnt have the quwat [power] to do. To rid Afghanistan of al the dirty, kaseef Hazaras. (pp. 38-40) Assef brought Amir a birthday gift. It was a biography of Hitler.(pp.96-97) Assef, who became leader of Taleban, took Sohrab (son of Hassan) from orphanage in Kabul and forced him to prostitution: How is that ***** these days? While Assef was present in his office, One of the guards pressed a button and Pashtu[or Pashto is the language of Pashtuns] music filled the room and Sohrab danced in a circle.(pp. 278-280) The Taleb with the whip shouted something in Pashtu.(p.272) Or the guard said something in Pashtu, in a hard voice( p.279). Or One of the guards said something in Pashtu(p.291). The tribe of the Taleban is Taleban . But the author tries to connect Taleban and Pashtuns through their language Pashto and this way diminish and discredit the majority Pashtuns, succinctly to dehumanize them. Soon after the 911 catastrophe, America bombed Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance [a collection of non-Pashtun warlords who collected U.S. $70 millions within the first few weeks of the war] moved in, and the Taliban scurried like rats into the caves.(p. 362) Dr. Hosseinis statements are embedded in social discrimination based on basic psychological impulses of fear and Pashtun-bashing. ...the kind of thinking which presents any ethnic or national group in terms of a crude, unflattering caricature is undesirable and sloppy at best. {Dr. Michael F. Connors, Dealing in Hate: Anti-German Propaganda. Institute of Historical Review, Newport Beach, CA, 1996, 48 pages. Electronic version [Nov. 11, 2009].} CONCLUSIONS Why is Dr. Hosseini, who belongs to a well educated family, involved in Pashtun-bashing? He is originally a Sayed (honorific title used for male descendants of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad.) However, his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are members of the ruling lineage of nobility (Mohammadzai-Pashtuns). So he is half Pashtun (Mohammadzai nobility) and half non-Pashtun. Besides, Dr. Hosseinis aunt is the mother of Prince Mostapha Zaher, the grandson of King Zaher Shah (he died in Kabul in 2007). But culturally Dr. Hosseini is a non-Pashtun, or apparently an anti-Pashtun non-Pashtun. In 1973 Prince Mohammad Daud overthrew his nephew King Mohammad Zaher Shah (1914-2007), declared Republic and proclaimed himself president. The Pashtun faction of the leftist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew Daud and thereby ended once and for all the reign of the Mohammadzai nobility. This might be one of the reasons why Dr. Hosseini (as the privileged half) has taken revenge on Pashtuns as collectivity. Culturally non-Pashtun Dr. Khaled Hosseinis biography reveals that he had limited opportunity to expand his knowledge of Afghan history. He feel[s] like a tourist in my own country (p.231). Farid (a character) who escorted Dr. Hosseini to Afghanistan, told him: Agha Saheb[Sir]....You? Youve always been a tourist here in Afghanistan (p.232). To transcribe Afghan terms, Dr. Hosseini uses in his novel Iranian Persian (Farsi) pronunciation rather than Dari (Afghan version of Farsi) phonetic transcription. For example, GharghaLake (p.13), Sabzi challow (p. 173), Maghbool (p.178), and Topeh chasht (p. 245).Their Dari-Farsi pronunciations are: Qargha Lake, Sabzi chalau, Maqbool, and Tope chast. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In the early 1970s he lived with his family in Teheran, Iran, where his father worked for the Afghan embassy. In 1973, he and his family returned to Kabul, and in 1976, Hosseini and his family moved to Paris, France, where his father was assigned to the Afghan embassy. The Hosseinis were still in Paris when the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. The 15-year old Hosseini, along with his family, left Paris for the United States of America, where they arrived in the fall of 1980. From this, I can assume that Dr. Hosseini is a victim of his superficial knowledge of the Afghan history. I am assuming that Setam-e meli ideology was influential in his political socialization. Setam-e meli (national oppression) looks like a class struggle, which is based on the alleged oppression of non-Pashtun minorities by the Pashtun majority. The concept of Setam-e meli originated in the former Soviet-Communist literature, and it influenced the outlook of non-Pashtun leftists. The Soviet Union needed this ideology to divide Afghanistan into north and south regions. The Soviet design was to integrate ten Northern provinces into a submissive, civilized SocialistRepublic of Afghanistan and to merge the southern provinces into a resistant, less civilized Democratic Republic of Afghanistan as a buffer zone for the defense of the civilized North. Who would think that U.S. strategist Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski cannot learn from Soviet Arbatov?! The idea of dividing Afghanistan was also appealing to non-Pashtun Ahmad Shah Masood, the leader of the Northern Alliance, who might have been interested in establishing Masoodistan in Northern Afghanistan. This anti-Pashtun mutation became intensified during the Soviet occupation (1979-1989), Parcham rule (1980-1992) and during Masood-Rabani chaotic unholy victory (1992-1996). Dr. Hosseini may have been influenced by the opinions, suggestions and/or guidance of other Afghans. They could have used his historical-political inexperience and his excellent writing skills for their own political-ideological orientation. Or presumably, someone has co-opted his thinking? The Kite Runner by Dr. Hosseini is a biased book. It is patronizing the Western audience and plays into war mongering. It is a common feeling among Pashtuns that this novel participated in dancing to the drum of Bushs war which was a virtue of supreme importance in the post-911 political and cultural climate. The war party will move heaven and earth to make sure the war, propaganda, collapse of mainstream media integrity, and the proliferation of doublespeak are working harmoniously. (See Cold War Fantasies: Film, Fiction, and Foreign Policy by Prof. of Political Science Ronnie D. Lipschutz. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, October 2001).
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:38:34 +0000
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