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Kite Runner Gender Roles

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The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini reveals the gender roles and expectations forced on both men and women during the story's time (early 60s to early 2000s) and the story's setting (primarily Afghanistan). The gender roles were attached to ideas of what members of society considered masculine or feminine. If one strayed from what people expected of them or their gender, they were considered to be taking on characteristics of the opposite sex. Men were supposed to show more brawn than intellect, show less emotion and be aggressive, while women were supposed to be completely dependent on men and stay "pure" for the sake of their husbands and their family. If people took on traits or roles that were seen as masculine or feminine, they …show more content…
Soraya pointed this out to Amir, saying, "Their sons go to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no-one says a goddamn thing. Oh they're just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang [honour] and namoos [pride] and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life" (188). People easily brushed off a man's actions, while a woman doing the same thing will get more criticism about it, and will typically hear that criticism longer than a man would. Secrets were also harder to keep when it came to women, because they were closely watched with each interaction. Amir did not know that Amir's father was also Hassan's father (meaning that they were step brothers) until Rahim Khan told him as an adult (236), whereas with Soraya's relationship history, many people seemed to know about it, and it scared away potential suitors (157). Amir acknowledged that even if he was the person who initiated the conversation, gossipers would most likely try to make it seem as if Soraya was being clingy, saying things such as "Did you see how she wouldn't let him go?" (155). Having grown up in a family where he only had his father as an example of how he was supposed to be as a man, Amir became more aware of how unfair women were treated when he got married to

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