April 27, 1978

April 27, 1978, is the date of the Saur Revolution, a communist coup that overthrew President Daoud Khan's government in Kabul, marking a decisive turning point in Afghanistan's modern history and the beginning of decades of conflict that directly shapes the lives of the novel's characters.

Causes and Background

The coup was preceded by the murder of Mir Akbar Khyber, a prominent communist, on April 17, 1978. Two days later, a large demonstration erupted in Kabul, with some ten thousand people marching through the government district. The demonstrators blamed President Daoud Khan's government for Khyber's death. In the Deh-Mazang neighborhood, neighbors like Fariba gathered in the streets, talking excitedly with transistor radios pressed to their ears, while the shoemaker Rasheed and his wife Mariam listened to the news on the radio at home. Rasheed explained to Mariam that Khyber had been a communist and that his supporters were blaming the murder on the government. When Mariam asked what a communist was, Rasheed mocked her ignorance, saying it was "common knowledge" and that a communist was "someone who believed in Karl Marxist." The leader of the Khalq branch of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Taraki, was in the streets giving rousing speeches to the demonstrators.

What Happens

On the morning of April 27, Mariam was awakened by crackling sounds and intense, sudden roars. She ran barefoot to the living room and found Rasheed already by the window in his undershirt, his hair disheveled, palms pressed to the glass. Overhead, military planes zoomed past, heading north and east, their deafening shrieks hurting her ears. In the distance, loud booms resonated and sudden plumes of smoke rose to the sky. When Mariam asked what was happening, Rasheed muttered, "God knows," and could get only static on the radio. He told her they could only wait. Later that day, as Mariam made rice with spinach sauce in the kitchen—an exercise in heightened anxiety, as Rasheed's faultfinding had left her stricken with self-doubt—the national anthem played on the radio. After the music faded, Air Force Colonel Abdul Qader announced that the rebel Fourth Armored Division had seized the airport and key intersections, and that Kabul Radio, the ministries of Communication and the Interior, and the Foreign Ministry building had also been captured. Rebel MiGs had attacked the Presidential Palace, and tanks had broken into the premises. Daoud's loyalist forces were all but defeated. Days later, Mariam would hear of the slaughter at the Presidential Palace: Daoud Khan had been killed, but not before the communist rebels had killed some twenty members of his family, including women and grandchildren. There were rumors that he had taken his own life, that he had been gunned down in the heat of battle, or that he had been saved for last, made to watch the massacre of his family, then shot.

Consequences and Aftermath

Rasheed turned off the radio after Abdul Qader's announcement. When Mariam asked if the coup was good or bad, Rasheed said it was "bad for the rich" and "maybe not so bad for us." Mariam's thoughts drifted to her father, Jalil, a wealthy landowner and cinema owner in Herat, and she wondered if the communists would go after him, jail him, or take his businesses and properties. The coup marked the beginning of communist rule in Afghanistan, which would lead to the Soviet invasion in 1979, the rise of the Mujahideen resistance, and ultimately the civil war and Taliban takeover that would devastate the country and the lives of the novel's characters. For Mariam, the event was a distant but ominous political shift; for Laila, who was born that very night, it was the beginning of a life shaped by war and upheaval. The coup also signaled the end of the monarchy and the start of a period of instability that would directly lead to the violence and displacement that define the novel's central conflicts.