1

Karina Chairez
Mr. Rivers
Honors English
23 february 2015

The Kite Runner
Basic human rights are the rights that everyone is born with. Regardless of their

religion, ethnicity, language, etc. So often in places like America do people take for granted the rights given to them at birth when other countries can only dream of having them. In The
Kite Runner, so many of the basic human rights Like, the right to life, education and equality are violated. Throughout
The Kite Runner
, Khaled shows the violation of these rights and how it affects the story.
The right to life is a big right that the characters of The Kite Runner violate especially with Hazara's. On page 218, when the death of Hassan comes up Rahim tells Amir that “
Hassan’s family was living alone in the big house.. they accused him of lying.. the Talibs said he was a liar and a thief and ordered him to get his family out by sundown.." and when
Hassan refused the Taliban shot him. The Taliban accused Hassan of lying and denied him to the right live in the big house. Even though, he had permission to live there. This goes to show how bad of a life and how little of rights a Hazara had. The people of Afghanistan, treated the Hazara's the way one would treat an animal.

In the Kite Runner, the right to equality is a privilege. A right not given at birth or a right

just anyone and everyone has. In Afghanistan, they are two kinds of people. At least two kinds of people Khaled hosseini talks about; the Pashtuns and the Hazaras. Only the
Pashtuns receive respect. Assef even says how “ Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns. We

2

are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not the flat nose here.” (p.41). Because Hassan was a Hazara, he’d never be treated with respect. In Assef’s eyes and people like Assef, Hassan would never amount to what a Pashtun could. Another example of inequality occurs when the
Taliban kills Hassan. They murdered him for all the wrong reasons and no one stuck up for him. All because he was a Hazara. On page 220, Rahim says “ but no one was going to risk anything for a pair of hazara servants.” The Taliban killed him even though he had permission to stay in baba’s old house. When the Taliban killed him no one said anything. Not a word spoken about the unfairness of this injustice. All because of the way of