2001

2001 is the year in which the accumulated sorrows of Afghanistan's recent history converge into a series of devastating events that fundamentally alter the lives of the characters and the nation itself. It is a year of both destruction and the faint, ambiguous promise of renewal, a hinge between the Taliban's repressive rule and the uncertain future that follows the American invasion.

The Destruction of Heritage and the Deepening Crisis

In April 2001, Laila learns that the Taliban have planted TNT in the crevices of the giant Buddhas in Bamiyan and blown them apart, calling them objects of idolatry and sin. Despite an outcry from around the world, the Taliban detonated their explosives inside the two-thousand-year-old statues, chanting "Allah-u-akbar" with each blast. Laila remembers standing atop the bigger Buddha with her father, Hakim, and Tariq in 1987, watching a hawk gliding over the valley, but when she hears the news of the statues' demise, she is numb to it. "How could she care about statues when her own life was crumbling dust?" she wonders. The drought, now in its third and worst year, has ravaged the country, turning villages into nomadic communities and forcing people to Kabul, where they live in makeshift slums. The Kabul River has dried up, becoming a public toilet filled with human waste and rubble. The hunger is so severe that Mariam hears of a neighborhood widow who ground dried bread, laced it with rat poison, and fed it to all seven of her children, saving the biggest portion for herself. Aziza's ribs begin to push through her skin, and Zalmai lies around the house with dulled eyes. Mariam remembers Mullah Faizullah's saying: "Even the snakebitten man finds sleep, but not the hungry."

Aziza's Ordeal and the Orphanage

In April 2001, shortly before Laila's twenty-third birthday, the family's desperation reaches its breaking point. Rasheed, who has lost his shoe shop to a fire and been fired from subsequent jobs, tells Laila that Aziza must be sent to an orphanage. Laila protests, but Rasheed slaps her, and when she punches him, he shoves the barrel of his gun into her mouth. The family walks to the orphanage in Karteh-Seh, a squat, barracks-style building with a splintered facade and missing windows. Aziza, who has been told she is going to a special school, asks repeatedly how long she must stay. At the orphanage, the director, Zaman, a stooping, narrow-chested man with a pleasantly lined face, gently takes Aziza from them. Laila remembers how they had to pry Aziza's fingers from her wrist, and she runs down the hallway holding back a howl. Aziza's screams echo in Laila's head all the way home. Laila begins to visit Aziza, often risking beatings from the Taliban to reach her. She learns that Zaman secretly teaches the children reading, writing, geography, and science, but they must pull the curtains and pretend to knit if the Taliban inspect. Aziza develops a stutter, and Laila notices the dirt under her fingernails. During one visit, Aziza explains tectonic plates, saying, "sometimes, the shifting of rocks is deep, deep below, and it's powerful and scary down there, but all we feel on the surface is a slight tremor."

Tariq's Return and the September 11 Attacks

In the summer of 2001, Tariq returns to Kabul, having survived the false report of his death. He and Laila reunite, and he learns of Aziza. On September 11, 2001, while cleaning a room at the hotel in Murree, Pakistan, where they have fled, Tariq and Laila hear a commotion in the lobby. On the television, they watch a plane crash into the World Trade Center, and then both towers collapse. Soon, all the TV stations are talking about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden. The Taliban announce they will not relinquish bin Laden, citing the Pashtunwali code of hospitality. Tariq bitterly notes the distortion of this honorable custom. A few days later, they watch President George W. Bush declare war. Tariq says, "On your country, to begin with." Laila and Tariq have their first fight as husband and wife when Tariq suggests the war might not be such a bad thing in the end. Laila, who lost her parents to war, is furious, but Tariq explains he meant there might be hope at the other end. That night, Zalmai wakes up coughing, and Tariq carries him, and Laila sees the outline of Zalmai's head on his shoulder. When Tariq comes back to bed, his cheeks are wet.

The Decision to Return and the Legacy of Loss

In July 2002, Laila tells Tariq she wants to return to Kabul. She misses the city of her childhood and feels restless, hearing Babi's voice telling her she can be anything she wants and that Afghanistan will need her. She also thinks of Mariam, who sacrificed herself so Laila could be safe. "Did Mariam die for this?" Laila asks herself. "Did she sacrifice herself so she, Laila, could be a maid in a foreign land?" Tariq agrees, saying, "I'll follow you to the end of the world, Laila." Before returning to Kabul, Laila insists on going to Herat. There, she visits the kolba where Mariam grew up, now a ruin with a rotting floor and weeds. She sits inside and closes her eyes, summoning Mariam's face. She then receives a tin box from Hamza, Mullah Faizullah's son, which contains a letter from Jalil, a videocassette of Pinocchio, and a burlap sack of money. Jalil's letter, written in 1987, is a confession of his failures as a father and a plea for forgiveness. He writes, "I regret that I did not open the door and take you in. I regret that I did not make you a daughter to me." Laila cries as she reads it. In April 2003, Laila, Tariq, and the children are back in Kabul, living in a small rented house in Deh-Mazang. The drought has ended, and the Kabul River is flowing again. Laila works as a teacher at the orphanage, now renovated with Tariq and Zaman's help. She is pregnant again, and if it is a girl, she has already named her. As she stands in the classroom, she feels a wave of movement in her belly and thinks of Mariam, who is never far. "She is in these walls they've repainted, in the trees they've planted, in the blankets that keep the children warm," Laila reflects. "But, mostly, Mariam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns."