Gul Daman

Gul Daman is a small village perched on a steep hill two kilometers north of Herat, Afghanistan. It is the setting of Mariam's childhood and the site of her mother Nana's suicide, events that shape her entire life. The village is defined by its isolation and its proximity to the kolba, the mud-brick dwelling where Mariam lives for the first fifteen years of her life, cut off from the wider world.

Geography and Setting

Gul Daman sits on a steep hill two kilometers north of Herat. The village is reached by a rutted, uphill dirt track that branches off the main road between Herat and Gul Daman. The track is flanked by knee-high grass and speckles of white and bright yellow flowers. It snakes uphill and leads to a flat field where poplars and cottonwoods soar and wild bushes grow in clusters. From this elevation, one can make out the tips of the rusted blades of Gul Daman's windmill on the left and, on the right, all of Herat spread below. The path ends perpendicular to a wide, trout-filled stream that rolls down from the Safid-koh mountains surrounding Gul Daman. Two hundred yards upstream, toward the mountains, there is a circular grove of weeping willow trees. In the center, in the shade of the willows, is the clearing where the kolba stands. The village is home to an arbab, or leader, named Habib Khan, a small-headed, bearded man with a large belly who visits the kolba monthly. The elderly village Koran tutor, Mullah Faizullah, also lives in Gul Daman and comes to the kolba once or twice a week to teach Mariam.

The Kolba and Mariam's Life

The kolba is a small, mud-brick dwelling built by Jalil and two of his sons, Farhad and Muhsin. It is raised with sun-dried bricks and plastered with mud and handfuls of straw. It has two sleeping cots, a wooden table, two straight-backed chairs, a window, and shelves nailed to the walls where Nana places clay pots and her beloved Chinese tea set. Jalil adds a new cast-iron stove for the winter and stacks logs of chopped wood behind the kolba. He adds a tandoor outside for making bread and a chicken coop with a fence around it. He brings a few sheep and builds them a feeding trough. He has Farhad and Muhsin dig a deep hole a hundred yards outside the circle of willows and build an outhouse over it. Mariam lives here with her mother, Nana, for the first fifteen years of her life. The kolba is a place of both confinement and routine. Mariam and Nana milk the goats, feed the hens, and collect eggs. They make bread together. Nana teaches Mariam to knead dough, to kindle the tandoor and slap the flattened dough onto its inner walls. Nana also teaches her to sew and to cook rice and all the different toppings. The kolba is also the site of Nana's suicide. After Mariam leaves for Herat to find Jalil, Nana hangs herself from a high branch of the weeping willow tree. Mariam sees Nana dangling at the end of the rope when the driver brings her back. The kolba is later visited by Laila in 2003, after Mariam's execution. Laila finds the kolba still standing, though dilapidated, with the lone windowpane empty and the door gone. The interior is even smaller than she imagined, with only half of a single rotting, splintered board remaining of the floorboards. The floor is carpeted with dry-edged leaves, broken bottles, discarded chewing gum wrappers, wild mushrooms, and old yellowed cigarette butts, but mostly with weeds. Laila sits inside and summons Mariam's memory, imagining her as a young girl making a doll by the glow of an oil lamp.

Key Events and Significance

Gul Daman is the setting for several pivotal events in Mariam's life. It is where she first hears the word "harami" from Nana, where she learns to endure, and where she experiences the weekly visits from her father, Jalil. It is also the site of her mother's suicide, which she witnesses upon returning from her failed attempt to join Jalil in Herat. The village is also where Mariam is buried, in a corner of the cemetery in Gul Daman, after her execution by the Taliban. The village's significance lies in its representation of Mariam's marginalized existence. It is a place of isolation, poverty, and shame, but also of the only love and connection she knows before her marriage to Rasheed. The kolba, in particular, becomes a symbol of her confinement and her longing for a different life. Laila's visit to the kolba after Mariam's death serves as a pilgrimage, a way for her to honor Mariam's memory and to understand the depth of her suffering and resilience.