Charms in The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
371 pages

I read this last year, but today as I organized my bookshelf I saw that I had post-its sticking out of it, so I decided to post them. Beautiful and powerful, yet there are some things in this book that upset me as they may enforce false opinions about my religion.

"I finally had what I'd wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into."

"It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime."

"I envied the mullah now. I envied his faith and certainty."

"You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is...God help him."

"I see now that Baba was wrong, there is a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. [...] There is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need, I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book says He is. [...] I will think of Him every day from this day on if He only grants me this one wish: My hands are stained with Hassan's blood; I pray God doesn't let them get stained with the blood of his boy too. I hear a whimpering and realize it is mine, my lips are salty with the tears trickling down my face. I feel the eyes of everyone in this corridor on me and still I bow to the west. I pray. I pray that my sins have not caught up with me the way I'd always feared they would."

"I lay awake, an insomniac once more. And alone with demons of my own."

"But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."

Words of Week 17

Bookish: More acquainted with books than with real life
Ampersand: A character or symbol (&) for and
Sycophant: A self-seeking, servile flatterer
Disparity: Lack of similarity or equality; inequality
Presumptuous: Assuming an unwarranted, unauthorized responsibility
Flagrant: Shockingly noticeable or evident; obvious; glaring
Dubious: Of doubtful quality or propriety; questionable

You Don't Look Attractive.

We are eating lunch with a group of friends, and one guy, out of the blue decides to make an announcement:

"Everyone with a set of ovaries, listen to me. Please, stop freaking out, screaming, and jerking when you see a bug. It's really not attractive. It doesn't look good. It's just a small insect, it's not going to kill you."

Everyone rolls their eyes, and I say:

"I am so sick of you guys thinking you are the center of the universe. Girls don't need to look attractive all the time for you. When there is a small living thing with eight legs and non-appetizing looks walking on my arm, the last thing I care about is what the opposite gender will think of me when I scream. Everyone with a set of testicles should know that we don't exist to please you guys."

&&&

You know what really doesn't look attractive? A dogmatic male trying to assert his egregious patriarchal believes onto others. You know what also doesn't look attractive? This male incessantly, and audaciously pressing on his beliefs to be true and not trying to accept the reality.

The reality being we, women, aren't on Earth to give men pleasure. We aren't beings who can simply be dehumanized into objects. We don't have to look attractive and beautiful by society's standards so that men can stare and gawk at us. We don't have to be skinny or tall, we don't have to have ridiculous body proportions that are impossible to retain without health problems; we don't have to wear things that expose our bodies; we don't have to wear things that camouflage our bodies; we don't need to hide our fat; we don't need to put on make-up; we don't need to spray perfume; we don't need to engage in any activity that makes us uncomfortable for the sole purpose of gratifying men's wishes.

We can do all that for ourselves, and we do. However, the majority of the male population on Earth conceitedly thinks we do all that for them, and therefore impose this view onto helpless women who are prone to oppression. In the end, we have females who do not know what social activism is. We have females who have been brainwashed to think female rights movements are negative ideologies where women rebel against their governments, live on streets, shave their heads, and burn their bras. We have females who don't do anything to change their daughters' futures, knowing their daughters will go through the same hardships as they did.

The world DOES need equality. Females aren't put on Earth to satisfy males. We can't be reduced to money, clothes, and stupidity. We aren't bound to be agreeable, weak, and submissive. And the biggest female rights advocates today should NOT be females. They should be males. Why? Because we are trying to change the male perspective on the issue, and before we achieve our goals of equality through the social rights movement, males won't listen to females. The cycle will repeat itself endlessly if males don't intervene to change other males, and we'll be stuck at the same point. It's the same idea. But the same idea presented to males by males is more effective.

So get moving. Go educate, advocate, act, volunteer, write, create, establish, think, donate and live. Go, and do something to change the world. Whatever is your talent or your passion, act on it to improve the standards of living. If you parkour really well, then advertise through parkouring. If you are a photographer, tell stories through your photographs. If you are a barista, communicate with the customers. Write on the chalkboard. Make graffiti.

Social activism doesn't hurt.

Lots of owls,
~Belle