Study questions for chapters 6-9 of SOK

Chapter 6:

1.     Why was the man executed at the beginning of the chapter?

2.     Interpret the following passage: 

Zunaira is no Taliban, and her husband’s not mad; if he lost his way in a moment of collective hysteria, that’s because the horrors of everyday life are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm all defenses, and human degeneracy is deeper than any abyss.  Mohsen is behaving like other people, recognizing his distress in theirs, identifying with their degradation.  His deed provides proof that everything can change, without warning and beyond recognition (72).

3.     What are Mohsen and Zunaira like?  Why do you think that Khadra gives us a couple that westerners can so readily identify with?

4.     What is Zunaira’s attitude about the burqa?  Be able to say something more nuanced than “she doesn’t like it”. 

Chapter 7

1.     What is Atiq’s attitude about children?  Why is he glad he doesn’t have any?  What makes his attitude about children a REASONABLE one?  What makes it seem pretty creepy?

2.     Why does Atiq apologize to Nazeesh?  Are you surprised that he did this? 

3.     Why does Khadra include the long passage from 86-87 describing how Atiq USED to be?  What sort of person do you think that Atiq would be in a different environment?

4.     Why are Zunaira and Mohsen detained by the Taliban?

5.     What does it mean that the people need to be pushed into the Mosque to hear Mullah Bashir?

Chapter 8 

1.     What is the idea of the West that Mullah Bashir creates in his sermon?  Are there kernels of truth in what he says? 

2.     How is his sermon an example of propaganda?

3.     How would you describe what Zunaira goes through while waiting for Mohsen?  Where is she emotionally at the end of page 99?  How do you think she feels about the idea of her future?

4.     Why do you think Khadra mentions that so many of the people in the mosque seem to not want to be there?  Some are bored, some are falling asleep, etc.

Chapter 9

1.     What has happened to Nazeesh?

2.     Who is Qassim and where is he going?

3.     What does Qassim want and what’s his plan for his future?  (p 111).  What does this suggest about his ‘devotion’ to the cause of the Taliban?

4.     Do you think that Qassim can be considered a friend to Atiq?

5.     At the end of the chapter, Atiq goes home and finds Musarrat and he thinks she’s dead.  When she stirs, he knows she isn’t but it’s clear that he wished that she was dead.  Can you explain this?  What makes up Atiq’s attitude?  Remember: nothing is psychologically simple about this.