The Kite Runner Won’t Fly in Afghanistan
by Josh Strawn
Afghanistan may yet see a post-liberation cultural rebirth, but judging by recent events the Afghan Renaissance won’t be hitting the mainstream any time soon.
Just a week ago, the Information and Culture Ministry of Afghanistan announced a ban on the the film version of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, ensuring that the film’s message won’t legally reach the audience for whom its message might have the most positive impact. The head of state-run Afghan Film, Latif Ahmadi, told reporters that The Kite Runner‘s frank portrayal of issues such as tribal feuding and rape would be simply “unacceptable for some people.”
Film doesn’t have raw revolutionary power in itself, but individual films can become catalysts for developing new national consciousnesses in countries undergoing transition. The releases of ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ in 1967 certainly contributed to the national debate about race relations in the U.S. and played a role in sculpting new understandings of what it meant to be an American.
For better or for worse, in our technological and entertainment-driven world, there is something about an issue landing at the center of the media stage that gives people a sense of its time having come. What’s most depressing about the ban isn’t that the film won’t be seen–bootlegs will be readily available.
What’s sad is that the Afghan government is foreclosing on the possibility of allowing its people to sense that the moment has arrived for turning a gaze inward and confronting their own demons.
None of this is to say that The Kite Runner is pure education or perfectly balanced commentary. Read on a literal level, the controversial scene where a Pashtun boy rapes a Hazara boy may address certain attitudes of one group toward another–in this case, well-to-do, socially powerful Pashtuns, many of whom have traditionally looked down upon the Hazara as no better than slaves. On the flip side, however, the Taliban was a Pashtun nationalist movement and many Pashtuns now must live with discrimination as other Afghans unfairly associate their ethnicity with the crimes of that regime (most of the Taliban may have been Pashtun, but most Pashtuns were not Taliban supporters). Read on a symbolic level, however, the scene in question represents the historical dilemma of Afghan vicitms, their Afghan (as well as foreign) victimizers, and a burden of guilt with which many diaspora Afghans identify–feelings of remorse at having been able to walk away from the awful fate that has befallen so many of their countrymen and women.
Not only is freedom of expression important to Afghans as they emerge from decades of totalitarian rule and civil war–it is in American interests for this kind of repression to end. Extremism thrives on a simplistic critique–that all social ills are the fault of outsiders. But while outside intervention has most certainly played a role in the tumultuous history of countries like Afghanistan, no country is without its own internal and domestic issues. The all-too-prevalent scapegoating of the West as the source of all evil will necessarily come to a halt as self-awareness increases.
Josh Strawn is a writer and musician living in New York. His band is Blacklist.
That is bad, still i am looking to find the video here in Kabul but the government put punishment in no releasing the video here.
By the way, the family of Hasan go problem here and had to leave. Hasan’s father told to media the director who made this film didn’t tell him the sensitive scene. Need a lawyer to bring the director to court i think. Any one there? lots of buck will get out of it may be.
Kite Runner was as amazing a film as it was emotionally and itellectually distressing.
Hopefully it is only the first to come of many such uncomfortable films uncovering the truthful savagery that the world has come to associate with extremist Islam.
How unfortunate that it is being banned in Afghanistan. It is obvious for all to see that a proposal for such self-examination is so entirely foreign an idea to certain groups even in this day and age. Very sad.
This is indeed sad. As another fan of Kite Runner, this seems to me another indication of the cowardice of Karzai, who at first blush was such a great leader. Until the Islamic world is willing to confront their demons, they will remain backward. And a threat to all of us and themselves.
It’s hard to confront your demons who murder people because of silly cartoons. How many movie houses would they burn? How many movie goers would they carbomb?
How many cinemas have shown the film in the US? Which chain has picked up the movie? Our MSM was too scare even to reprint the cartoons, our Hollywood loud mouths are silent about the film. Yet we fault Karzai for “cowardice”.
Mr. Simon, I must disagree with you regarding Karzai. He proved adept beyond all expections in knitting together a people who knew only faction and fratricide. Karzai has shown himself to be a shrewd diplomat and able politician. He has demonstrated an intricate knowledge of tribal politics and shown personal bravery in the effort to unite his nation. We are lucky to have such an ally.
Let’s give Mr. Karzai the benefit of some doubt regarding the sensitivities of his people. He knows better than we what might pass for acceptable, and what might otherwise inflame the passions of a volatile people. Discretion may be the better part of wisdom. Introspection, understanding and accommodation cannot be rushed. Tolerance for freedom of expression will arrive in due course. Grant the Afghans some time. They’ve come a long way for a people who have never known the western liberal tradition.
And fear not the censorship. Markets have a way of making available what the populace demands. Best for now to let this film do its job in private. After all, personal introspection can be as valuable as public debate.
But Karzai a coward? I think not.
Since Muslims themselves are congenitalyy incapable of honestly confronting the horrors of Islam, the world will continue to suffer at their hands, and cancers like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and all the other Muslim sewers will persist. Until we force the failures of Islam down their throats, and permanently cut off Muslims’ ability to victimize us, and then blame us for the nightmare of their ideology, we are doomed to live in the cycle we are in now of an expanding and arrogant Islam. The costs of Islam’s horribleness must be charged against the leaders of Islam until their bankruptcy is beyond question. With trillions flowing into Muslim coffers due to the accident of oil, with America sacrificing blood and treasure to attempt to fix more unfixable Islamic regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Muslims across the globe scapegoating and victimizing everyone else, there is no chance for true progress. Afghanistan and Iraq will at best be temporary arrangements until Islam re-asserts itself and all our sacrifice is wasted. Just look at the trends: virtually every Islamic nation is turning further towards Islam rather than away from it. Until Islam is undermined, and Muslims are made to foot the bills for Islam’s catastrophic stupidness, all the nightmares will persist and expand. This enemy must be shattered, and only then will real progress begin.
Banning a film is the best way to be sure that it will be seen. Even in the prisons of China, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, it is impossible to keep out ideas and narratives.
Philip Carl Salzman’s book, “Culture and Conflict in the Middle East” sheds light on the subject.
Of course, some prefer the darkness because the light brings to light what their character is.
After all, character is revealed by what a person does in private.
I am disturbed that seemingly “educated” people who posted comments on this blog have resorted to bashing Islam over an issue that is not as simple as religion (especially “Morton Doodslag” – your rather arrogant and absurd remarks accusing Muslims of being the arrogant ones are quite hypocritical!).
Since the “Doodslags” of the world are incapable of confronting the horrors of their own racist minds, and how their hateful mentalities invoke resentment towards the West in the “Muslim sewers” around the world, perhaps it’s time to shed light on this subject because I’m getting tired of hearing “expert analysis” from those who have no idea what it means to be a Muslim or Afghan.
First, perhaps it would be best if Doodslags stopped blaming Islam and Muslims for the world’s problems, and look at their own blood stained hands.
Second, as an Afghan-American, never did I remember hearing about tribal differences in Afghanistan as much as after 9/11 when the media covered news like a Hollywood script. I’m proud that we have an author like Khalid Husseini who provokes thought and discussion about Afghanistan. However, the issue Afghans around the world have with the “Kite Runner” is that while there have been differences between Pashtuns and Hazaras over the years (no more different than whites and Hispanics here in the U.S.), the likelihood of a young boy harboring such hatred and raping another boy just because he is Hazara is very unrealistic (perhaps if Husseini developed the hatred as stemming from revenge or the character’s homosexuality, then it might be believable).
I’m not saying that it could never happen, but to many Afghans, it’s not something the world should focus on at a time when reconstruction of the country is crucial (it’s in the U.S.’s best interest, believe me) – and at a time when Afghans are concerned about real issues such as famine, disease, infant mortality, the lack of electricity, clean running water, and other serious problems that plague the country. So many empty promises made to the Afghan people over the fast few years have not been delivered. It’s just not the TIME to put these issues out to the Afghan people. The film could create more conflict among them- many who are very poor and literate after so many years of war – I highly doubt they are going to see the “artistic” meaning behind the film. It’s like releasing a movie about an illiterate southern “redneck” being raped by a N.Y. Jewish yuppie during a modern day U.S. civil war, and then calling the U.S. government backwards for refusing to air it because it might cause a backlash.
I’m not saying it should have been censored or that Afghans are perfect. Personally, I thought the movie was great. I’m an artist myself and value the freedom of speech and expression, especially through art. I don’t pretend that the world is perfect or that Muslims haven’t made their share of mistakes. Heck, I know very well how corrupt Karzai’s “government” is, and how many abuse their powers. It’s frustrating! And, yes, there are many corrupt Muslim leaders who are a disgrace to the religion – but to put down an entire religion because of the mistakes of a bunch of jerks is not fair, and I’m simply fed up with it.
All religions are perfect in their spirit but it’s the way people misinterpret them that creates imperfections and conflicts. It’s politics disguised as religion that ultimately creates the hatred.
Doodslags need to stop bashing Islam and start fixing the political and social issues that are rampant everywhere, not just in Muslim countries. The first place they should start is in their own minds.
Samira Atash