knew the four walls of her home Her father turned to look at her I’d rather see you running around a school yard He turned around again to call out to the passing men Anything written Anything read Pashtu and Dari Wonderful items for sale Parvana frowned It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t in school She would rather be there too instead of sitting on this uncomfortable blanket her back and bottom getting sore She missed her friends her blue-and-white school uniform and doing new things each day History was her favorite subject especially Afghan history Everybody had come to Afghanistan The Persians came four thousand years ago Alexander the Great came too followed by the Greeks Arabs Turks British and finally the Soviets One of the conquerors Tamerlane from Samarkand cut off the heads of his enemies and stacked them in huge piles like melons at a fruit stand All these people had come to Parvana’s beautiful country to try to take it over and the Afghans had kicked them all out again But now the country was ruled by the Taliban militia They were Afghans and they had very definite ideas about how things should be run When they first took over the capital city of Kabul and forbade girls to go to school Parvana wasn’t terribly unhappy She had a test coming up in arithmetic that she hadn’t prepared for and she was in trouble for talking in class again The teacher was going to send a note to her mother but the Taliban took over first What are you crying for she had asked Nooria who couldn’t stop sobbing I think a holiday is very nice Parvana was sure the Taliban would let them go back to school in a few days By then her teacher would have forgotten all about sending a tattletale note to her mother You’re just stupid Nooria screamed at her Leave me alone One of the difficulties of living with your whole family in one room was that it was impossible to really leave anyone alone Wherever Nooria went there was Parvana And wherever Parvana went there was Nooria
Both of Parvana’s parents had come from old respected Afghan families With their education they had earned high salaries They had had a big house with a courtyard a couple of servants a television set a refrigerator a car Nooria had had her own room Parvana had shared a room with her little sister Maryam Maryam chattered a lot but she thought Parvana was wonderful It had certainly been wonderful to get away from Nooria sometimes That house had been destroyed by a bomb The family had moved several times since then Each time they moved to a smaller place Every time their house was bombed they lost more of their things With each bomb they got poorer Now they lived together in one small room There had been a war going on in Afghanistan for more than twenty years twice as long as Parvana had been alive At first it was the Soviets who rolled their big tanks into the country and flew war planes that dropped bombs on villages and the countryside Parvana was born one month before the Soviets started going back to their own country You were such an ugly baby the Soviets couldn’t stand to be in the same country with you Nooria was fond of telling her They fled back across the border in horror as fast as their tanks could carry them After the Soviets left the people who had been shooting at the Soviets decided they wanted to keep shooting at something so they shot at each other Many bombs fell on Kabul during that time Many people died Bombs had been part of Parvana’s whole life Every day every night rockets would fall out of the sky and someone’s house would explode When the bombs fell people ran First they ran one way then they ran another trying to find a place where the bombs wouldn’t find them When she was younger Parvana was carried When she got bigger she had to do her own running
Now most of the country was controlled by the Taliban The word Taliban meant religious scholars but Parvana’s father told her that religion was about teaching people how to be better human beings how to be kinder The Taliban are not making Afghanistan a kinder place to live he said Although bombs still fell on Kabul they didn’t fall as often as they used to There was still a war going on in the north of the country and that was where most of the killing took place these days After a few more customers had come and gone Father suggested they end their work for the day Parvana jumped to her feet then collapsed back down again Her foot was asleep She rubbed it then tried again This time she was able to stand First she gathered up all the little items they were trying to sell dishes pillow cases household ornaments that had survived the bombings Like many Afghans they sold what they could Mother and Nooria regularly went through what was left of the family’s belongings to see what they could spare There were so many people selling things in Kabul Parvana marveled that there was anyone left to buy them Father packed his pens and writing paper in his shoulder bag Leaning on his walking stick and taking Parvana’s arm he slowly stood up Parvana shook the dust out of the blanket folded it up and they were on their way For short distances Father could manage with just his walking stick For longer journeys he needed Parvana to lean on You’re just the right height he said What will happen when I grow Then I will grow with you Father used to have a false leg but he sold it He hadn’t planned to False legs had to be specially made and one person’s false leg didn’t necessarily fit another But when a customer saw Father’s leg on the blanket he ignored the other things for sale and demanded to buy the leg He offered such a good price that Father eventually
relented There were a lot of false legs for sale in the market now Since the Taliban decreed that women must stay inside many husbands took their wives false legs away You’re not going anywhere so why do you need a leg they asked There were bombed-out buildings all over Kabul Neighborhoods had turned from homes and businesses into bricks and dust Kabul had once been beautiful Nooria remembered whole sidewalks traffic lights that changed color evening trips to restaurants and cinemas browsing in fine shops for clothes and books For most of Parvana’s life the city had been in ruins and it was hard for her to imagine it another way It hurt her to hear stories of old Kabul before the bombing She didn’t want to think about everything the bombs had taken away including her father’s health and their beautiful home It made her angry and since she could do nothing with her anger it made her sad They left the busy part of the market and turned down a side street to their building Parvana carefully guided her father around the pot holes and broken places in the road How do women in burqas manage to walk along these streets Parvana asked her father How do they see where they are going They fall down a lot her father replied He was right Parvana had seen them fall She looked at her favorite mountain It rose up majestically at the end of her street What’s the name of that mountain she had asked her father soon after they moved to their new neighborhood That’s Mount Parvana It is not Nooria had said scornfully You shouldn’t lie to the child Mother had said The whole family had been out walking together in the time before the Taliban Mother and Nooria just wore light scarves around their hair Their faces soaked up the Kabul sunshine
