1. Background & Introductio
The Kite Runner
Background & Introductio

2. About the Author Khaled Hosseini – Born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965
His father worked for the Afghan embassy and as a diplomat with Afghan Foreign Ministry
In July of 1973, the night that his brother was both, the Afghan king, Zahir Shah, was overthrown in a bloodless coup by the king’s cousin, Daoud Khan.
In 1976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris
His family was unable to return to Kabul because of the invasion of the Soviet army
Was granted political asylum by the U.S., and moved to San Jose, California in 1980
Lost all their property in Afghanistan and lived on welfare and food stamps
Hosseini graduated high school in 1984 and graduated from University of California’s School of Medicine in 1993.
Practices internal medicine, however, has always yearned to write
His memories of the peaceful pre-Soviet era Afghanistan led him to write this novel

3. Synopsis The novel maps the journey of Amir, the narrator
Story takes place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the U.S. from
Amir belong to a wealthy family whose father is a businessman
Belong to the dominant Pashtun ethnic group
Belong to the dominant Sunni religious group
As a child, Amir tells the story of his friendship with Hassan
Hassan and his father, Ali, are Amir’s servants
Hassan is a low caste ethnic Hazara and belong to the minority Shi’It religious denomination
Hassan is the victim of discrimination due to his religious and ethnic identity

4. Afghanistan A diverse nation – over 30 different ethnic groups
Pashtuns, which is what Amir is, is the dominant ethnic group (38% of the population and they have ruled Afghanistan for most of its history)

5. Ethnicity Hazaras consists of about10 to 15 percent Pashtun Hazara
Tajik

6. Ethnicity Others (Turkmen, Aimaq, Baluch, Nuristani) 13 percent. Uzbak
Pashtun
Uzbaks consists of
about 9 percent
Baluch

7. Religious Diversity
Afghanistan has two dominant religious groups, the Sunni, or the so-called orthodox Islam, and Shi’ite or the so-called heterodox.
Sunni constitutes 85 percent of the population and Shi’ite consists of 15 percent of Afghan population
Shi’ites split from the Sunni’s in the seventh century over who the Prophet Mohammad’s legitimate successors were
Shi’ites consider Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the
Prophet, the legitimate successor
Shi’ites developed their own conception of Islamic law
and practices.
In the past Shi’ites had been persecuted in Afghanistan.

8. Synopsis Continued…
Amir and his guilt – he allows Hassan to be beaten and raped by one of the neighborhood boys
Hassan and his father leave Kabul for Hazarajat
Shortly after Amir and his father have to flee Afghanistan for Pakistan and eventually end of California due to the soviet invasion

9. Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
King Zahir Shah is overthrown by his cousin Daoud Khan (politically peaceful until this time)
Resistance against this new regime formed immediately by Islamic guerrilla rebels who by 1975 began purging from government all officials with socialist or Marxist ties
Daoud Kahn was overthrown by the same military that brought him to power
Fearing the fall of the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979
The invasion caused many to flee and turned a once peaceful country into a war zone
After the failures of the Soviet, civil war and unrest allowed the Taliban to assume power

10. Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
King Zahir Shah is overthrown by his cousin Daoud Khan (politically peaceful until this time)
Resistance against this new regime formed immediately by Islamic guerrilla rebels who by 1975 began purging from government all officials with socialist or Marxist ties
Daoud Kahn was overthrown by the same military that brought him to power
Fearing the fall of the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979
The invasion caused many to flee and turned a once peaceful country into a war zone
After the failures of the Soviet, civil war and unrest allowed the Taliban to assume power

12. Synopsis Continued… Amir and his father struggle in America
Amir falls in love and gets married and they have infertility issues
He gets a call from his uncle that he must come back
Hassan was killed by the Taliban and the Taliban have his son Sohrab
Amir must face his guilt and return to Kabul to find Soharab

13. The Taliban The world Taliban is the plural of and Arabic word, Talib
or someone who seeks religious knowledge before he becomes a preacher in a mosque
They were the sons of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and
attended Pakistani schools of theology
Became active in October 1994 in Qandahar and
continued there advances in the country with help of
Pakistan
By 1997 they held about 90 percent of the Afghan
territory, including Kabul
THE TALIBAN ACHIEVEMENT
They brought relative peace and security in the country

14. The Taliban The world Taliban is the plural of and Arabic word, Talib
or someone who seeks religious knowledge before he becomes a preacher in a mosque
They were the sons of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and
attended Pakistani schools of theology
Became active in October 1994 in Qandahar and
continued there advances in the country with help of
Pakistan
By 1997 they held about 90 percent of the Afghan
territory, including Kabul
THE TALIBAN ACHIEVEMENT
They brought relative peace and security in the country

15. The Taliban’s Achievement
The banished the warlords and forced to the northeastern
corner the country and formed the Northern Alliance
Restored law and order but through rigorous enforcement
of Islamic punishment: public beating, flogging, amputation of hands, and stoning to death
The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice was the powerful arm of the Taliban government.
The ministry issued strict religious decrees that denied people the right to freedom of expression, association, the right to work, and the right to education
They prohibited games such as kite flying, chess, music,
cassette

16. The Taliban and the World Reaction
Only three countries recognized the Taliban government:
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan
Initially, America gave a lukewarm support to the Taliban.
We hoped the regime would be a partner in oil-pipeline, UNOCAL or Union Oil Company of California
CONCLUSION
The new game, Cold War, between the U.S.A. and the former Soviet Union brought death and utter destruction to the country
Over 5 million Afghans abandoned their homes and went into exile in other countries
Close to 1.5 million lost their lives
Many left their homes for secured areas of the country