The Breadwinner

“The Taliban had ordered all the girls and women in Afghanistan to stay inside their homes. They even forbade girls to go to school.”

Ellis exposes the suppression of women’s freedom and personal rights under the Taliban regime in Kabul. This refers to Nooria’s devastation; she hoped to finish high school and go to university. The exclusion of young girls from school perpetuates women’s confinement and repression.

“Their mother had been kicked out of her job as a writer for a Kabul radio station.”

Parvana’s mother, an intelligent and headstrong woman, finds the restrictive laws of the Taliban insulting and devastating. Her later depression when her husband is arrested is alluded to here. After losing her son, several homes, and her career, she feels unable to bear the beating and arrest of her husband.

“That house had been destroyed by a bomb. The family had moved several times since then. Each time, they moved to a smaller place.”

Parvana’s family’s wealth diminishes as the civil wars continue. This alludes to the destruction of the country through the Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil wars. The family’s reduced fortune echoes that of the city of Kabul, which was once magnificent but continues to be destroyed and diminished.

“Father had used a false leg, but he sold it.”

Parvana’s father’s decision to sell his leg severely limits his mobility. This choice illustrates the extent of the family’s poverty and desperation for money. Due to repeated bombing and land mines, there is a strong market for artificial limbs.

“Since the Taliban decreed that women must stay inside, many husbands took their wives’ false legs away. ‘You’re not going anywhere, so why do you need a leg?’ they asked.”

The number of artificial legs in the market illustrates the devastation wrought in the country by undetonated land mines, which were planted ubiquitously during the civil wars in the 1990s. This sentiment also illustrates the limiting of women’s agency and movement, literally and figuratively. Women were contained in their homes by the violent and brutal Taliban regime, and, therefore, couldn’t protest or advocate for themselves.

“They lived on the third floor of an apartment building. It had been hit in a rocket attack, and half of it was rubble.”

The destruction of Kabul is made evident in the fact that the family lives in a building that is partially rubble. It illustrates the effects of the ruthless bombing campaigns during the Soviet occupation and the period of civil war. It also illustrates the family’s poverty.

“Mother and Nooria had to wear burqas whenever they went outside, and they couldn’t carry a pail of water up those uneven broken stairs if they were wearing burqas.”

This passage addresses the strict dress codes instituted for women by the Taliban. Furthermore, the burqa is shown to be an impractical garment to navigate the city’s damaged streets and the arduous tasks required for survival. The burqa further limits the participation of women in public life.

“Her mother always looked sad when she touched Hossain’s clothes.”

The reader learns of Hossain, Parvana’s older brother, who was killed when he stepped on a land mine. The individual and collective trauma of Afghans over the millions of lives lost through the international and civil wars that gripped the country is alluded to in Parvana’s mother’s immense grief. Hossain’s clothes play an important role in the plot; they enable Parvana to disguise herself as a boy and sustain her family.

“Afghanistan has always been the home of the bravest women in the world. You are all brave women. You are all inheritors of the courage of Malali.”

Parvana’s father tells the story of Malali over dinner. He will soon be arrested, and Parvana will need to embody the courage of Malali to keep her family alive. Malali becomes an important and recurring symbol to inspire Parvana to be brave when she is trying to rescue her father, trying to support her family, and saving Homa.

“‘Why did you go to England for your education?’ the soldiers yelled at Father. ‘Afghanistan doesn’t need your foreign ideas!’”

Parvana’s father’s arrest illustrates the Taliban’s suspicion and hatred of all international ideas and cultural influences. Taliban forces destroy many books, televisions, and ban music, believing these things to be impure and corrupting influences.

“Malali wouldn’t be afraid, Parvana knew. Malali would form an army and lead it in a storming of the prison.”

Parvana draws on the story of the courageous Afghan girl to give her courage. Malali’s bravery inspires Parvana to join her mother in calling for the release of Parvana’s father in front of the prison. They are both beaten, illustrating that Parvana’s fear was justified and that her actions were brave and dangerous.

“‘We’re out of food,’ Nooria said again to Parvana the next day […] ‘You have to go. There’s no one else who can go.’”

Parvana must step into the role of caretaker and breadwinner of the family; it is more dangerous for Nooria to be outside alone as an older teenager wearing a burqa. Furthermore, Parvana is familiar with the market from the time she spent there with her father. This conversation alludes to Parvana’s disguise, which allows her to support her family.

“There was a pocket sewn into the left side of the shirt, near the chest. It was just big enough to hold money and maybe a few candies […] it was nice to have pockets.”

Hossain’s clothing, which is more comfortable as well as more practical than girls’ clothes, becomes a symbol of men’s substantially greater rights in Afghanistan. In Hossain’s clothing, Parvana can safely participate in public life, working, shopping, and interacting with others.

“The Talib kept looking down at her. Then he put his hand inside his vest. Keeping his eyes on Parvana, he drew something out of his vest pocket […] she saw that the Talib had taken out a letter.”

Parvana’s experiences in the market contribute to her maturity. Previously, members of the Taliban were associated only with violence and terror in her mind. In this interaction, Parvana realizes that Talibs are capable of emotion, and they have also been affected by the country’s violence and instability.

“‘Mrs. Weera and I are going to work together,’ Mother announced. ‘We’re going to start a magazine.’”

In their dangerous decision to start a magazine, Mrs. Weera and Parvana’s mother are characterized as headstrong, determined, and brave. Parvana’s mother’s depression lessens when she is actively involved in drawing attention to the injustices of life under Taliban rule. This work further characterizes her as principled and intellectual.

“It was a small square of embroidered cloth […] as she wondered where it had come from, her eyes went up to the blacked-out window where she thought she had seen a flicker of movement a few weeks before.”

Parvana develops a relationship with an unknown female benefactor who lives next to the market. The woman’s gifts cheer Parvana and bring a sense of companionship. The mysterious woman’s friendship alludes to the theme The Importance of Human Connection in Surviving Hardship.

“They looked out over the mounds of dug-up graves, at the boys, sweaty and smudged with dirt, at the piles of bones beside them, gleaming white in the sudden sunshine.”

Parvana and Shauzia dig up bones in a bombed graveyard. A bone dealer pays them for the bones they produce. This job illustrates both girls’ families’ destitution and desperation: Parvana and Shauzia need money or their families will starve. The graveyard job also symbolizes the condition of Afghanistan; with infrastructure and industry destroyed, bones of the dead need to be used to produce needed products.

“‘If she can make money this way, and she’s willing to do it, then I think she should be allowed.’ It was Parvana’s turn to be stunned. Nooria taking her side? Such a thing had never happened before.”

Parvana and Nooria’s relationship is repaired in the months when their father is arrested; the family must band together to survive. The hardships facing the family lead each girl to treat the other with more understanding and compassion.

“All of a sudden one of the soldiers took out a sword, raised it above his head and brought it down on the man’s arm. Blood flew in every direction.”

The Taliban instituted harsh punishments, such as cutting thieves’ hands off. The fundamentalism of Afghanistan under Taliban rule is alluded to in this traumatic moment that is inadvertently witnessed by Shauzia and Parvana.

“The cigarettes and gum had fallen off their trays, but the men around them gathered up the spilled items and returned them to the girls.”

Ellis reminds readers that, like any country, Afghanistan includes people who display cruelty but also those who show kindness. Kabul is gripped with debilitating poverty, yet the men around Shauzia and Parvana sense the children’s distress and help them collect their goods and accompany them out of the stadium.

“If I turn back into a girl, I’ll be stuck at home. I couldn’t stand that.”

Shauzia is determined to leave Afghanistan. Her plight is emblematic of that faced by many young girls; as a woman, she will be confined to the home, and married off to a man she has no choice about being with. Despite her love of her mother, Shauzia plans to flee Afghanistan to avoid this marriage.

“Kabul was the hot spot of Central Asia […] It was a city of lights, progress and excitement.”

Parvana’s parents remember when Kabul was bustling, exciting, and progressive. Parvana’s predicament as she remembers this, leading the terrified Homa through the dark streets hoping to avoid the Taliban, indicates the city’s devastation in the intervening years. This passage also alludes to Afghans’ grief regarding the destruction of their country.

“They grabbed my father and my brother and took them outside. They shot them right in the street. My mother started hitting them, and they shot her, too.”

Homa describes the invasion of Mazar by the Taliban. The ruthless brutality of the regime is foregrounded in this extract. Furthermore, the circularity of Homa’s illegal unchaperoned state after the death of her family is alluded to. The Taliban banned women from acting independently in the public sphere, but they were also responsible for the deaths and arrests of countless Afghan men, leaving many women and girls with no male relatives to chaperone them.