Laila reads Jalil's letter

Laila reads Jalil's letter, a handwritten confession of regret and a plea for forgiveness addressed to Mariam, which she discovers in a locked tin box during her visit to Herat after Mariam's execution.

Discovery of the Letter

During her visit to Herat in 2003, Laila meets Hamza, the son of Mullah Faizullah, who gives her an oval-shaped olive green tin box with fading gilt scrolls that Jalil had entrusted to his father shortly before his death in 1987. The box has a small rust and two tiny dents on the front rim of the lid, and it is locked. Hamza provides a key, explaining that neither he nor his father ever opened it. Laila takes the box back to the Muwaffaq Hotel, where she sits on the bed and, after some hesitation, slides in the key, rattling and shaking it until the latch gives way. Inside, she finds three items: an envelope, a burlap sack, and a videocassette. The envelope contains the letter, handwritten in blue ink on a yellow, lined sheet of paper, dated May 13, 1987.

Contents of the Letter

Jalil's letter begins with an apology for his failed visit to Kabul a month earlier, when Mariam refused to see him. He acknowledges that he lost the privilege of her good graces long ago and blames only himself. He then recounts the sorrows that have befallen his family: his wife Afsoon was killed on the first day of the 1979 uprising in Herat; his daughter Niloufar, whom he still remembers doing headstands to impress guests, was killed by a stray bullet the same day; his son Farhad joined the jihad in 1980 and was killed by the Soviets in 1982 just outside Helmand, his body never recovered. Jalil writes that he still dreams of his dead children and of Mariam, and he misses the sound of her voice, her laughter, and the times they fished together. He expresses profound regret for not opening the door when she came to Herat, for not making her a daughter, and for letting her live in the kolba for all those years, all for fear of losing face and staining his so-called good name. He says that now, after all the loss and terrible things he has seen in the war, those things matter little to him, but it is too late. He asks for her forgiveness, repeating the word three times.

The Inheritance and the Videotape

Jalil explains that the communists confiscated much of his land and all of his stores, but he managed to sell what little remained of his land after his return from Kabul. He encloses Mariam's share of the inheritance in the burlap sack, which he has exchanged into dollars, noting that it is far from a fortune but something. He insists that he is not trying to buy her forgiveness, knowing it is not for sale, but is merely giving her what was rightfully hers all along. He says that death is within sight for him due to a weak heart, which he considers a fitting manner of death for a weak man. He dares to hope that she might find it in her heart to come and see him, to knock on his door one more time and give him the chance to open it. He ends by wishing her a long and prosperous life, many healthy and beautiful children, and the happiness, peace, and acceptance he did not give her. The videocassette, which Laila views in the hotel's vacant suite, turns out to be Walt Disney's Pinocchio—the cartoon about a puppet boy that Mariam had wanted to see at Jalil's cinema on her fifteenth birthday, the request that set in motion the events leading to Nana's suicide and Mariam's forced marriage.

Laila's Response

After reading the letter, Laila tells Tariq about it that night, showing him the money in the burlap sack. She begins to cry, and he kisses her face and holds her in his arms. The letter deepens Laila's understanding of Mariam's past and the weight of her father's rejection, and it reinforces her own commitment to building a new life in Kabul, where she can honor Mariam's memory by contributing to the rebuilding of their country.