Book Review - The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra

Dear reader, I have just finished reading a book, The Swallows of Kabul, that has bought light to me on how life goes on in another part of the world. The place is Kabul, which is located on the Afghan countryside. The first thing I found out which was shocking is that the books author is not who I thought it was. The book says it is written by Yasmina Khadra, but inside the cover is this “Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul, who is the author of four other books published in English: Double Blanc, Morituri, In the Name of God and Wolf Dreams. He took the feminine pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by military censors while he was still in the army. He lives in France.” For me that sort of set the tone, I pictured that there was going to be a lot of control over people and a harsh society. These predictions were right but not near the extent that I thought it would go to. The book is fiction but it could very well be real, especially how it is depicted by the author.

First – this is an excerpt to describe the setting of the country and what it is like

“The cratered roads, the scabrous hills, the white-hot horizon, the pinging cylinder heads all seem to say Nothing will ever be the same again. The ruin of the city walls has spread into people’s souls. The dust has stunted their orchards, blinded their eyes, sealed up their hearts. In places, the buzzing of flies and the stench of animal carcasses declare the irreversibility of the general desolation. It seems that the whole world is beginning to decay, and that its putrefaction has chose to spread out outward from here, from the land of the Pashtuns, where desertification proceeds at a steady, implacable crawl even in the consciences and intellects of men.”

To me I get the imagery that the city is full of little crumbly rock houses, there are lots of buildings but they are all in a state of ruin. There are people absolutely everywhere, but none of them look like they are well taken care of. The vendors make sure that looming children do not try to steal anything from their carts by slapping their constantly moving hands with thin sticks, almost like a ruler. The children are running absolutely everywhere, there are dogs randomly wandering down streets looking for food or something they can turn into a meal. Any women that are seen are covered head to toe in a burqa, they live in fear of showing their bodies to anyone, including their husbands.

The story is about 4 people whose lives get entangled after the incident of the stoning of a prostitute. The stoning was described so carefully. It was as if people gather the stones and put them in a pile and wait for the prostitute to arrive. She is then buried up to her knees in a hole so that she cannot fall over while being stoned. There is a speech said before the stoning happens and then everyone runs to the pile to grab rocks to be thrown at this poor woman “who has gone against the Lord and given her body to too many men”. There is lots of blood and groaning from the poor woman. I would have expected screaming but I doubt she would do that because it may give the crowd satisfaction. Executions in this country are regular and are often made a public affair. Many times you will find children playing and re-enacting an execution. Women are thought of differently then we think of them her. Women have almost no rights and are only there to be a caretaker to the children, to have the children, keep the house tidy and make the meals for the husband. Men can have more then one wife and if a wife is ill or about to die it is common that she be divorced immediately for a younger woman that can provide and meet all the needs the man may have. In this city the Taliban are lurking everywhere, the quite often disrupt meals and grab people as they are going to Mosque as a way of recruiting.

Second – a conversation between a friend and Atiq, one of the main characters, (just to depict how women are treated)

“…Can there be any greater generosity to a woman than to offer her a roof, protection, honor, and a name? You don’t owe her anything. She’s the one who should bow down before you Atiq, and kiss the toes of your feet, one by one, every time you take off your shoes. She has little significance outside of what you represent for her. She’s only a subordinate. Furthermore, it’s an error to believe that any man owes anything at all to a woman. The misfortune of the world comes from precisely that misconception.”

Third – this quote from the book shows the power the Taliban have over the citizens within the city and to what lengths they will go with such power.

“Things in Kabul are going from bad to worse, sliding into ruin, sweeping along men and mores. It’s a chaos within chaos, a disaster enclosed in disaster, and woe to those who are careless. An isolated person is doomed beyond remedy. The other day, there was a madman in the neighbourhood, screaming at the top of his lungs that God had failed. From indications, this poor soul knew neither where he was nor how he had lost his wits. But the uncompromising Taliban, seeing no extenuating circumstances in his madness, had him blindfolded, gagged and whipped to death in the public square.”

I never knew what a powerful force the Taliban was, I mean yeah after 9/11 I thought they were pretty damn important but I didn’t know how they operated in areas which they claim to be theirs. It must be hard for citizens to live in fear of when and where they may be grabbed and have to deal with them. I found it shocking but definitely an eye opener as to how things are in a different country.

Fourth – When Atiq sees Zunaira in the jail cell, awaiting her death sentence (this is when Atiq’s views towards women start to change)

“Never before has he seen such a splendor. With her goddess’s profile, her long hair spread across her back, and her enormous eyes, like horizons, the condemned woman is beautiful beyond imagination. She’s like a dawn, gathering brightness in the heart of this poisoness, squalid fatal dungeon.”

I enjoyed this quote because finally a man is seeing that a woman is a beautiful creation, not just an object as they are taught. After this point in the book Atiq’s attitude really changes and he has to deal with the conflicts it causes with his work and other areas of his life. He deals with these conflicts sometimes in a manner that you or I would classify as strange but as I have shown the life is very different in that country. The ending of the book is totally shocking and even still it has you reflecting back on an incident in the book that you read before. The ending is not predictable at all. It is sad but also it is good for the type of harsh world the people of Kabul have to live in. I definitely recommend this book, as it has opened my eyes to a totally different view.