On loyalty

For your assignment tonight, please analyze the concept of loyalty and provide examples from SOK.

SOK Vocabulary Terms for Friday's Exam

Pseudo progress
Voracious
Ferment
To disgorge
Carnage
To gesticulate
Cudgel
Anomaly
Verbiage
Prolixity
Subjugates
Gimcrack
Marginalization
Caravansary
Piety
Sidereal
Scruples

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.

 

Chapter 5 Study Questions SOK

Chapter 5:

1.     Who is Nazeesh?  What does he want to do?

2.     Why is Atiq so dismissive and nasty to Nazeesh?

3.     What was Nazeesh like earlier in his life?

Chapter 4 SOK Questions

Chapter 4

1.     How do people wind up in the mosque?  What does this say about their ‘natural inclinations’ about going in to pray?

2.     What is Atiq’s attitude toward the elderly?  Why does he feel this way?  What does it say about our culture that we are able to think about old people in a different way?

3.     Why does Atiq ask for God’s forgiveness so many times?  (This is the phrase Astaghfirullah)

4.     Why do you think the war veterans are telling the “war stories” that they are?  They’re clearly a little ridiculous (like tall tales)…what’s the point of them?  What are some memorable features of these stories?

5.     On the bottom of page 48 and top of 49, Khadra is talking about how Atiq hates himself and why.  Is Atiq a bad guy, or is this a sort of understandable, if unattractive, position for him to be in?

6.     On page 50, Atiq is wondering whether he’s being tested by God for enduring such hardships in war only to live in a rotten situation now.  The prayer that he starts is lâ hawla wa lâ quwwata illâ bi Allâh

 The phrase lâ hawla wa lâ quwwata illâ bi Allâh is mentioned numerous times in the hadith (sayings of Muhammad) as being highly regarded and highly recommended by the Prophet Muhammad. The phrase is a part of daily prayers for many Muslims, and is a common phrase in ceremony and dhikr.  It is not uncommon to find the phrase lâ hawla wa lâ quwwata illâ bi Allâh translated simply as there is no power or strength except through Allâh

7.     Why is Atiq so surprised when he finally went home?

8.     What is Atiq and Musarrat’s relationship like?

9.     What’s the situation at Mohsen’s house?

10.   Who does Mohsen encounter at the very end of the chapter?

The Taliban's War Against Women

Here is a link from the US State Department on the Taliban's War Against Women.  Please read the article and comment on it in relation to Chapter two of Swallows of Kabul.

The Taliban's War Against Women--State Department

Questions for Chapter Three: SOK

Chapter 3

1.     At the beginning of the chapter, Khadra talks about why being alone is actually better than having friends.  What is the general argument?

2.     How would you describe Mohsen and Zunaira’s relationship?

3.     What is Zunaira’s reaction to Mohsen’s confession?  Why does she have such a hard time believing that he did what he did?  Does being educated really insulate us from such heinous deeds or are we just as vulnerable to ‘group think’ and ‘group do’ as anyone else?