Kite Runner Debate thread

[imb706]

I saw the film, I thought it was alright. I think it´s where I first heard the word ¨pashtun.¨

[imb706]

I think a lot of groups say that when they aren´t shown in the most positive light. Just look at films that portray Nazi germany, if filmed in Germany, the German government pretty much makes them have to mention the German Resistance. Things that don´t make you look like the hero usually offend you, it´s human nature.

[شمله ور خراساني]

Question for those who didn't/don't like Hosseini's The Kite Runner: Can you give specific examples of how the author presented Pukhtuns in his book?

Every author writes what she/he *believes* is true, or what makes sense to her/him. Hosseini had his reasons for writing that novel and for giving the view of Pukhtuns that he did. If it was a Pukhtun author writing it, it would obviously have been a different perspective. I don't think it's fair to condemn him for his view at all. The portrayal MAY have been his personal experiences, it MAY have been based on his observations, it MAY have been what others told him -- it was certainly inspired by *something*, whatever it was.

For those Pukhtuns who don't agree with it, I say this: Write a novel in which you -- a Pukhtun -- give a better view of Pukhtuns. How many contemporary Pukhtuns have published any novels? How many of us find our representation in other people's novels/books intolerable? And how are we responding to it? How many wars have we witnessed? How much suffering have we lived and tolerated? And how much have we written on it? What have we told the world *about* ourselves? It's not Hosseini or anyone else's responsibility to write good things about Pukhtuns; it's *ours, the ones who ARE Pukhtuns and live Pukhtun lives and KNOW Pukhtuns better than any non-Pukhtun ever might.

We need to tell OUR story (or stories) from OUR perspective. Really, it's silly of us to expect ANY non-Pukhtun to portray us in a positive light to the world in a novel that *he/she* writes.

As for The Kite Runner, I had no problem with it; I loved and enjoyed the story, and I read it when my mom was in Swat, so almost everything I was reading in the book, my mom would tell me was happening in Swat! That was when the saying that "history repeats itself" was proven true to me. It really does.

Aunty, stop for once playing advocate of the devil and be real. It is not funny anymore.

Khaled Huseini wrote his crappy book long time ago. But it failed to get recognized. But then, after 2003 when the Benard woman from RAND wrote her advice to American government on how to promote democracy and secularism in Afghanistan, suddenly this book was revamped under supervision of some professional authors. And republished and widely promoted to encourage people to support the war in Afghanistan and finance NGO's.

The book is just a piece propaganda. And I don't believe a word of your story about Swat. I think you are making stuff up.






Published on Saturday, January 5, 2008 by CommonDreams.org 'The Kite Runner' Critiqued: New Orientalism Goes to the Big Screen

by Matthew Thomas Miller

While The Kite Runner movie is now captivating audiences throughout the country-much as the book did four years ago-with its enthralling tale of "family, forgiveness, and friendship" and the promise that indeed "there is a way to be good again," very little has been written critiquing this work and its prominent role in the New Orientalist narrative of the Islamic Middle East.
Iranian literature specialist Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz (Washington University in St. Louis) has classified this book as one of the recent works that she argues constitute a "New Orientalist" narrative in her book Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran. (Dr. Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University also has written about New Orientalism and expatriates who serve as "native informers" or "comprador intellectuals" in respect to the Middle East).
Keshavarz broadly characterizes the New Orientalist works thusly:
Thematically, they stay focused on the public phobia [of Islam and the Islamic world]: blind faith and cruelty, political underdevelopment, and women's social and sexual repression. They provide a mix of fear and intrigue-the basis for a blank check for the use of force in the region and Western self-affirmation. Perhaps not all the authors intend to sound the trumpet of war. But the divided, black-and-white world they hold before the reader leaves little room for anything other than surrender to the inevitability of conflict between the West and the Middle East.
While The Kite Runner is perhaps less obvious in its demonization of the Muslim world and glorification of the Western world-what Keshavarz terms the "Islamization of Evil" and the "Westernization of Goodness"-than books like Reading Lolita in Tehran, these themes nevertheless clearly permeate the entire novel. While seemingly just a captivating story of Amir and his redemption through the heroic rescue of his childhood friend Hassan's son, Sohrab, the entire plot is imbued with noxious stereotypes about Islam and the Islamic world. This story, read in isolation, may indeed just be inspiring and heart-warming, but the significance of its underlying message in the current geopolitical context cannot be ignored.
At the most superficial level, the characters and their accompanying traits serve to advance a very specific agenda: everything from the conspicuous secularity of the great hero, Amir's father, Baba, to the pedophilic Taliban (i.e. Muslim) executioner and nemesis of Amir, Assef, clearly perpetuates the basic underlying theme: the West (and Western values) = 'good,' while Islam = 'bad,' or even, 'evil.' The inherent goodness of Baba and evil of Assef is repeatedly reified for the reader in some of the most dramatic and graphic scenes of the entire book. Baba valiantly lays his life on the line to protect the woman who is about to be raped, while Assef brutally rapes children and performs gruesome public executions in the local soccer stadium. Yet, perhaps the most telling attribute of these two characters is the particular national ideologies that they express affinity for: Baba loves America, while Assef is an admirer of Hitler.
The most pernicious element of this novel, however, is also the same aspect that American readers consistently have identified as the most heart-warming and inspiring: the story of the redemption of Amir thorough his harrowing and heroic rescue of Sohrab. In short, Amir, the successful western expatriate writer must leave his safe, idyllic existence in the U.S.; return to an Afghanistan that has been ravaged by the Russians (our Cold War enemy) and the Taliban (the representation of our new Islamic enemy); and rescue the innocent orphaned son of his childhood friend from the incarnation of evil itself, Assef. Amir's descent into this Other World, a veritable 'heart of darkness,' appears to be the only hope for its victims' salvation.
This adventurous and engrossing story neatly functions as an allegorized version of the colonial/neo-colonial/imperial imperative of "intervening" in "dark" countries in order to save the sub-human Others who would be otherwise simply lost in their own ignorance and brutality. These magnanimous interventions, of course, have nothing to do with economic or geopolitical concerns; they are purely self-sacrificial expressions of the superiority of the imperial peoples' humanity and ideology. When considered in this frame, the profound guilt that Amir suffers from his inaction during the violation of his innocent friend Hassan seems to represent the collective guilt of all "good" western or western-oriented people who watched idly while the Islamic bullies-epitomized by Assef-violated Afghanistan and the innocent western-oriented people like Baba and Amir. Of course, the implication then is that we also must redeem ourselves by returning and "rescuing" the people there from the Assefs of Afghanistan-this is our "way to be good again," in the words Khaled Hosseini's character Rahim Khan. This new recapitulation of the old "white man's [now, western] burden" narrative, when combined with the "Westernization of Goodness" and "Islamization of Evil" clearly present throughout the novel, provides a superb ideological framework upon which to justify our present occupation and future military interventions in Afghanistan.
It certainly does not take much imagination to expand this story and its message to the entire Islamic Middle East-especially when we combine this work's portrayal of Afghanistan with the other New Orientalist works on the Islamic Middle East, such as Azar Nafisi's popular Reading Lolita in Tehran, Asne Seierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul, Geraldine Brooks' Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, and even scholarly works like Bernard Lewis' What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. If what these works say about Islam and Islamic countries is the whole truth, then surely the continued and expanding U.S. military presence in that region is a good thing, right?
For anyone who has been to, or studies the Middle East, it is obvious that these accounts are gross distortions of the full reality on the ground there. It is not wrong to identify and write about the flaws of a particular country, religion, or ideology, but it is wrong and dishonest when an author's writings systematically dehumanizes and reduces an entire culture and religion to the actions of its extremists. Especially, when these are the same people and countries that our leaders tell us need to be attacked and occupied by our military.
Matthew Thomas Miller is a graduate student in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Please see the following resources for a more detailed discussion of New Orientalism:
Keshavarz, Fatemeh. Banishing the Ghosts of Iran. Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 53, Issue 45.
Keshavarz, Fatemeh. Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Keshavarz, Fatemeh. Interview. Jasmine and Stars: New Orientalist Narratives. ZNet. 2007 <http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13448>.
Dabashi, Hamid. "Native Informers and the Making of the New American Empire." Al-Ahram Weekly 1 June 2007. <http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/797/special.htm>.
Dabashi, Hamid. Interview. Lolita and Beyond . ZNet. 2007. <http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10707>

[Master Khan]

I just don't like this film, its makes pashtuns look bad and evil.
Pashtuns are the best people in Afghanistan.

[imb706]

Commondreams isn´t my favorite source I´d say. It heavily censors material critical of the Democratic Party during national elections, and it´s run by a strange mix of progressives and throwback old democrat conservatives. It´s just weird.

[Zari]

LOL...i soo agree i wasnt allowed to watch it.....

my dad wouldnt let me...

[Albani_Rahmat_Kabulzada]

Well, the book is based on many true facts that he himself and anyone of us have experienced. The behave toward Hazara minorities, the war, the inter-ethnical conflicts and to all of these things even raping and homosexuality belong to this negative key-collections. We can self see everyday articles about Bacha Bazi, homosexuality, raping etc. No one can deny that. The book was written before anyone have ever read something about Bacha Bazi or homosexuality in Afghanistan. So wasn´t Husseini right with his novel? The novel is a critical work on the society of Afghanistan. That´s all. Homosexuality is wide spreaden. There are many articles where it stated that 60% of male in Afghanistan do practize homosexuality. Some of the warlords have adoptet some dirty habbits to keep young boys (''Dancing Boys'') and sleep with them just because they don´t like women or see them as dirty.

And yes, he is from father a Tajik and from mother a Pashtun.

Ps: Taliban are gays. Why the prefere to be with men instead with women? Why they produce gay porns?

[Pashtun_Ultranationalist]

The movie was directed by a CIA agent. Google it for more info.

The author paints the Pashtun as a Evil person and portrays the Hazara as a oppressed nation. Then the whole Anti-Russian side to it as well, which is abit unfair. I havnt read the book but seen the movie.

[Nokia_Apridy]

da Pic ka chay PUKHTUN YA BARWA KHUDALAY DA REKHTYA DASEY DA ?

ka Rekhtya na da bya AFGHNISTAN KA DA PIC Sanga dumra Kamyab sho ?

zma da swal jwab ba sok rakey ?

[Gulbabo]

I read the book before watching the film and the film doesn't do even 1 percent justice to the book.

I really liked reading the book, actually i couldn't put it down. and i cried and i cried so much while reading it. I am not sure what the writer's intentions were, but he did write some facts about Afghan society... some things that minority of people do and give the whole country a bad image.

I also read his book "a tousand splendid suns" and i have never felt so emotional reading a book as i did reading this one.

I think i cried for a good 10 minutes when the woman was taken to the football ground to be shot for killing her husband...

[Nokia_Apridy]

about Afghan society.......pa da ka PUKHTUN shta ........

awo ka wi nu LAKA CHAY...........

da Khalid Hussnei na da ALjezra Interview ka da tapos hem nawo shway

chay da Story tasra pakha shway wa kna..............

khu haga khpalal da zan na oyal chay da Khalako guman zma pa arkha onkey chay

da zma sra shwey wu................hahaha

[Azmaray]

Ps: Taliban are gays. Why the prefere to be with men instead with women? Why they produce gay porns?

i didnt read the thread or anytihng i just read the stupid last line u post u ***** .

[Albani_Rahmat_Kabulzada]

Ok, Taliban are not angels, but spreading lies is for Kafirs.

According to you, every Tajik has a Pashtun mom and Tajik dad.

This book was slowly made for him to get money. He doesn't care about Afghans, and will obviously make a bs of a novel/movie that will play in his audiences mind (most of which are females)

But he does not spread any lies. He just wrote a social critical novel on Afghanistan. My own dad is Tajik and my mum is a Pashtun. Where did I said that every Tajik has a Pashtun mum? I can´t take a knife and cut my own. I just wrote that Husseini´s mum is a Pashtun. That is not a lie. You can look for his family´s background. Some even assume that his mother is distantly related with the former royal house of Daud Khan. He did not wrote the book to insult someone or any ethnicity. He wrote it to retell with his book one point of a span of at least 3 decades the history of Afghanistan. Every negative point you read in his book you can find in reality, too. Is that deniable?

i didnt read the thread or anytihng i just read the stupid last line u post u ***** .

http://www.dailymotion.com/family_fi...porn-rape_news

http://www.freefilesoft.net/xvid_dl/?ref=175493

Was I wrong, brother? Taliban are hypocrites. They are ISI productions and thus satanic or Satan´s tool againt Muslims to fool Muslims with hyocrites. Just do yourself a favour and look for Gaysm among Taliban or Dandysm among Taliban. Taliban today even finance their war through prostitution of children and everyone they can grab.

[Albani_Rahmat_Kabulzada]

Dostum´s mum is an Alizai Pashtun. Go and ask him. General Abdul Rashid Dostum That´s his own personal website. Qanuni has a Pashtun wife from Nangahar and two kids ... Massoud had a Pashtun mother that´s why he is also called with fully name as Naurozkhel. Just ask his brother or one of his sons on facebook. Even the killer Gulbuddin have given two daughters to two former NA commanders. AND VICE VERSA. The story about Dost Muhammad is a very good example. The problem with you guys is that you have some ethnical complexes. Without any reasons. Noone here is your enemy. Neither Massoud was nor any Hazara. Mostly, Pashtuns damaged non-Pashtuns. If today Pashtuns and Tajiks would kill eachother to which group should I side myself? To the Pashtuns becaus of my mother or to the Tajiks because of my father? To the Hazaras because they speak the same language as I do or to the Uzbeks who live closer to Darizubans than anyone? ... dear brother, please wake up. We live in the 21th century, no more in the medi-evil. Races, faiths, cultures and different languages do not count more. Only humanity! The man with the best charakter is god´s best friend. The debate was about the negative aspects Husseini speaks about that occures in our country and society. I say and he even wrote it 5 years earlier before anyone of us heart anything about Bacha Bazi that such a dirty thing exists. But if some people do not want to accept it we can not discuss it without any emotions. Your cousines fooled you or they do not want that the truth is revealed. I do not want to claim anything but maybe they joined some time the Taliban? There are many articles on Google and many videos about sex, Islam and Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

[Albani_Rahmat_Kabulzada]

Dostum´s mum is an Alizai Pashtun. Go and ask him. www.generaldostum.com That´s his own personal website. Qanuni has a Pashtun wife from Nangahar and two kids ... Massoud had a Pashtun mother that´s why he is also called with fully name as Naurozkhel. Just ask his brother or one of his sons on facebook. The problem with you guys is that you have some ethnical complexes. Without any reasons. Noone here is your enemy. Neither Massoud was nor any Hazara. Mostly, Pashtuns damaged non-Pashtuns. If today Pashtuns and Tajiks would kill eachother to which group should I side myself? To the Pashtuns becaus of my mother or to the Tajiks because of my father? To the Hazaras because they speak the same language as I do or to the Uzbeks who live closer to Darizubans than anyone? ... dear brother, please wake up. We live in the 21th century, no more in the medi-evil. Races, faiths, cultures and different languages do not count more. Only humanity! The man with the best charakter is god´s best friend.