The Breadwinner

“She sat well back on the blanket, her head and most of her face covered by her chador.”

Parvana meekly hides to avoid attracting negative attention from any Talibs in the market. Women are supposed to be at home, and if they are not, they are expected to be silent and modest. The recurring theme The Suppression of Women Under the Taliban is introduced.

“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.