September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001, marks the pivotal historical rupture that reshapes the lives of the novel's surviving characters. The attacks, which Laila and Tariq witness on a television in the lobby of Sayeed's hotel in Murree, Pakistan, set in motion the American invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban, creating the conditions for their eventual return to Kabul. The date functions as the hinge between the novel's long chronicle of suffering under successive regimes and its final, tentative movement toward hope and reconstruction.

The Attacks and Immediate Aftermath

Laila and Tariq are cleaning a hotel room when they hear a commotion from the lobby. They find Sayeed, the concierge, and several guests gathered before a television tuned to BBC. On the screen, a building—one of the World Trade Center towers—is billowing black smoke from its top floors. As Tariq begins to speak to Sayeed, a second plane appears from the corner of the screen and crashes into the adjacent tower, exploding into a fireball that dwarfs any Laila has ever seen. A collective yelp rises from everyone in the lobby. Within less than two hours, both towers have collapsed. Soon, all the television stations are talking about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden.

The Taliban's Response and the Declaration of War

When Tariq asks Laila if she has heard what the Taliban said about bin Laden, she confirms she has. The Taliban have announced that they will not relinquish bin Laden because he is a mehman, a guest, who has found sanctuary in Afghanistan, and it is against the Pashtunwali code of ethics to turn over a guest. Tariq chuckles bitterly, and Laila hears in his chuckle his revulsion at this distortion of an honorable Pashtun custom. A few days after the attacks, Laila and Tariq are again in the hotel lobby. On the television screen, President George W. Bush is speaking, with a large American flag behind him. At one point, his voice wavers, and Laila thinks he is going to weep. Sayeed, who speaks English, explains that Bush has just declared war. When Tariq asks on whom, Sayeed replies, "On your country, to begin with."

The War and Its Consequences for Afghanistan

Back in Afghanistan, American bombs begin to fall. The Americans arm the warlords once more and enlist the help of the Northern Alliance to drive out the Taliban and find bin Laden. Laila watches images of the war every day on the television as she changes sheets and vacuums. The coalition forces eventually drive the Taliban out of every major city, pushing them across the border to Pakistan and into the mountains in the south and east of Afghanistan. An international peacekeeping force, ISAF, is sent to Kabul. The country gains an interim president, Hamid Karzai. These changes create the political space that allows Laila to contemplate and eventually execute her return to Kabul.

Laila's Decision to Return to Kabul

The attacks and the subsequent war directly catalyze Laila's decision to leave the safety of Murree and return to her homeland. She finds herself missing the city of her childhood—the bustle of Shor Bazaar, the Gardens of Babur, the garment hagglers at Chicken Street. More than mere homesickness, she becomes plagued by restlessness. She hears of schools being built in Kabul, roads repaved, and women returning to work, and her life in Murree, pleasant as it is, begins to feel insufficient, inconsequential, and wasteful. She hears Babi's voice in her head, telling her she can be anything she wants and that Afghanistan is going to need her. She also hears Mammy's voice, remembering her mother's desire to see her sons' dream come true. Laila feels a part of herself that wants to return to Kabul for Mammy and Babi, for them to see it through her eyes. Most compellingly, she thinks of Mariam, asking herself if Mariam died so that she, Laila, could be a maid in a foreign land. She tells Tariq, "I want to go back," and he agrees, saying he will follow her to the end of the world.

Thematic Significance

September 11, 2001, serves as the novel's final, external deus ex machina, a world-historical event that breaks the cycle of internal Afghan violence that has trapped the characters for decades. It is the force that removes the Taliban, the regime that had made Laila's life a prison and forced her to send Aziza to an orphanage. The date thus represents the possibility of a new beginning, but it is a beginning shadowed by the knowledge that it came at an immense cost—the deaths of thousands in America and the renewed bombing of Afghanistan. Laila's conflicted feelings about the war—her inability to rejoice even as it brings her freedom—underscore the novel's central theme: that survival and hope are always purchased with suffering, and that the past can never be fully escaped, only endured and, eventually, transformed into a foundation for rebuilding.