Shanzai

Shanzai, known to her students behind her back as Khala Rangmaal (Auntie Painter) for the back-and-forth slapping motion she favored, was a teacher at Laila's school in Kabul during the late 1980s. She was a sharp-faced young woman with heavy eyebrows and jet-black hair pulled tightly back into a bun, revealing dark bristles on her neck. On the first day of school, she proudly told the class she was the daughter of a poor peasant from Khost. She stood straight, wore no makeup or jewelry, and forbade her female students from covering, declaring that women and men were equal in every way and there was no reason women should cover if men did not.

Ideology and Teaching

Shanzai was a fervent communist. She taught that the Soviet Union was the best nation in the world, along with Afghanistan, and that everyone in the Soviet Union was happy and friendly, unlike America, where crime made people afraid to leave their homes. She insisted that everyone in Afghanistan would be happy once the "antiprogressives" and "backward bandits" were defeated. She explained that the Soviet comrades had come in 1979 to lend their neighbor a hand and help defeat these brutes. She instructed her students to report anyone who might know about rebels, even if it was their own parents, because "none of them loves you as much as your country does." On the wall behind her desk were maps of the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, a framed photo of President Najibullah, and pictures of young Soviet soldiers smiling genially. She became angry if anyone used the word "coup" for the 1978 events, insisting it was a revolution, and "jihad" was another forbidden word. She claimed there was no war, only skirmishes against troublemakers stirred by foreign provocateurs, and no one dared repeat rumors that the Soviets were losing.

Encounter with Laila

Shanzai called Laila "Inqilabi Girl" (Revolutionary Girl) because she was born the night of the April 1978 revolution. When Laila was distracted in class, Shanzai sarcastically asked if she had disturbed her daydreaming. Laila correctly answered that Bucharest and Havana were the capitals of Romania and Cuba, and confirmed they were friendly countries. Years later, after the Taliban takeover, Laila saw Shanzai again at the orphanage where Aziza was staying. Shanzai was now a middle-aged woman with a sunken mouth and gray hair, visiting three boys and a girl. She wore her burqa pushed back. When their eyes met, Laila saw no light of recognition in her old teacher's eyes. The once-proud communist who had forbidden female students from covering was now, under the Taliban, a visitor to an orphanage, her earlier certainties and power reduced to a silent, unrecognizing gaze.