Pippa
How far do you agree that the ‘Kite Runner’ is fundamentally about a patriarchal society?

In the ‘Kite Runner’ it is clear that Hosseini introduces us to a rather patriarchal society through only introducing women within the margins of the narrative. Hosseini uses patriarchy within the novel to represent the poor treatment of women in society at the time. Soraya is shown to sit down at her own wedding with ‘her eyes downcast’ portraying the possibility of male dominance as it is almost like she could be avoiding eye contact as a sign of respect. The different in the way characters judge women’s mistakes compared to men’s show again the ‘double standard on men’ as Soraya is shown to claim ‘I make one mistake… and I have it rubbed in my face for the rest of my life’ compared to the Afghan boys who go and get their girlfriends pregnant and it’s viewed as ‘men having fun’. In addition, Chapter 21 Hosseini presents Assef to stone a man and women together, yet he only blindfolds the man; this shows how women are inferior to men and made to suffer more. Lastly, the lack of developed female characters and their silence in the novel is ironic as each female character we are introduced to seems to represent something significant showing how no matter how important the female may be, they will continue to be mediocre in society.
Another example showing women are considered inferior in the society of Afghanistan under patriarchy is when Amir went to the orphanage to get Sohrab, the owner of the orphanage says that the Taliban usually bought girls for small amounts of money, but it was better than ‘nothing at all’. This is showing that in the society of Afghanistan people consider girls to be worth a certain amount of money. The fact that the Taliban would take mainly girls over boy’s it could show that they believe the boys would eventually have more potential. Furthermore, when they were in the truck coming from Afghanistan, the soldier would not let the people pass unless he could ‘take advantage of’ a woman. This depicts the disrespect and treatment of women like objects.
As the story progresses, there is more evidence to prove that females and males aren't treated equally by society. Baba has to ask Soraya's father for permission for Amir to marry her. This shows that women aren't able to get a decision in the marriage making because it was made by her father. Soraya may be happy with this decision, but in other cases the female might not want this arranged