Teaching A Thousand Splendid Suns: Afghanistan Speaks



Posted: Sunday, March 01, 2009

by
Temple University

I just finished teaching Sunjata, the epic about the king who began the Mande Empire in West Africa. Now I'm moving onto A Thousand Splendid Suns. I may have to use a different tactic: I've been using Jungian archetypes to teach The Epic of Gilgamesh and Sunjata, but it may not be effective here. Those of you who have read the novel may want to comment on their reading experience. I will share mine:

Many critics has compared the book to The Kite Runner. (I didn't see the film.) I don't think the 2 are related, except that they take place largely in Kabul, the Taliban come off poorly and the author shows the oppression of minorities within Afghanistan. In The Kite Runner, the Shiites were the victims, in A Thousand Splendid Suns, the victims are women. Yet in both books those who suffer become empowered, one through the redemption of the narrator, the other through sheer rage. In the first novel, the oppressed gets to flee the aggressor and build a new life; in the second, one character sacrifices so that another can find happiness. Both books are excellent, but I preferred the second.

Khaled Hosseni is an important writer because he brings Islam and Afghanistan to the American reader. Most of us don't know squat about either topic, even though we hear that so and so is a Muslim which is code for: cannot be trusted, evil, terrorist, fanatic and so forth. Afghanistan is that place where Osama Bin What's His Name lives, so we have to go there and find him. If we think about Afghanistan at all, we think Taliban, terrorists, chaos;we may even think that the average Afghan is happy to see us as we tear through the mountain villages. We don't understand why the Taliban are still around--didn't we get rid of them in 2001 or 2002? We also don't understand why the Afghan people continue to house Osama? Neither book will tell you much about the second, but both address indirectly the appeal of the Taliban. Again, the second book is much better because it covers the history of the Soviet occupation and the disastrous consequences of victory over the invader. The Soviets were terrible, but their departure left a vacuum; people wanted peace, they wanted their culture restored, and they wanted revenge. Since America has never been invaded and occupied by a foreign power (okay, the war of 1812), we don't comprehend the collective psychological damage it brings to ordinary citizens. Most people just want to live their lives; foreign occupation of any sort will interfere with that process, even if the invasion is called peacekeeping or rescue.

I read a book called Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan after I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. Here are some details from the book:

1. Afghanistan has known war for over 25 years.

2. When we arrived in Afghanistan around October 2001, the American Air Force complained that there were no good targets left to bomb, but we bombed anyway.

3. After a year, we gave up the "bomb and hope" strategy (named by Colin Powell) over the Afghan mountains, because it didn't expose specific "small bearded men."

4. Land mines are everywhere. Many don't know where they are from--pick your war.

5. Roads are largely impassable. Soviet tanks lie gutted along train tracks. Debris from repeated air attacks blocks any passage; bridges are largely destroyed, and some roads are bare rocks--jagged and dangerous. It is easier to fly over Afghanistan than drive.

6. I haven't even begun to share the experiences of poverty, warlords, unemployment, food shortages and male sadism.

7. People in the West blame Islam and the Taliban. But the Taliban is a byproduct of tribal warfare--they understand Islam through their own cultural experiences and their need to secure order. I find nothing good in the Taliban, but it is a mistake to say that their strict interpretation of the Koran is the same of every Muslim throughout the world. If the Prophet Muhammad were alive today, he would be shocked at the treatment of women in Afghanistan over the past two decades.

8. It is considered an unforgivable breech in tribal hospitality to reveal the whereabouts of anyone who takes sanctuary in the Afghan mountains. This is another reason we can't find Osama---people will not give him up. (Note--7 and 8 do not come from Kabul in Winter, but a variety of sources that stem from researching A Thousand Splendid Suns.

So I'm not sure what I will stress in this book-(objective suggestions are welcome). My Muslim students are excited because they want to use this text to explain to others what Islam is and what it isn't. I've been really happy to see that people are listening to one another. I also need to prepare that my students will discuss our presence in Afghanistan. What exactly are we doing there? I've been so focused on Iraq that I left Afghanistan alone. Was that another reason for the Iraqi War? I will not put Afghanistan on hold any longer.

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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Anonymous
 2 years 86 days ago.
Wow! Great piece.
 
I just finished watching the 1979 film "Meetings With Remarkable Men" for the third time, the story of the young Gurdjieff. It was filmed entirely in Afghanistan. There was a time in the not so distant past when the Trans-Caucasus and Near East were cosmopolitan centers, very active in many spiritual traditions, and florid with ethnic diversity.
 
For instance, there is a segment about the Yzidi boy trapped in the circle. We don't really hear too much about the Yzidi, except as a threatened group in Iraq, and one which suffered a major slaughter a couple of years ago by Sunni Iraqis.
 
The Taliban don't really take Afghanistan back to a supposed earlier religious harmony, but instead have installed a new era of homogeneity that isn't necessarily representative of the entire culture.
 
Also recommended is the film "Osama", if you haven't had the chance. Very disturbing tale of being a girl in Taliban ruled society.
» left by Gregory Lewis 2 years 86 days ago.
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I wrote the above reply. Sorry, I wasn't logged in when I wrote it.
 
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