KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN TURKMENISTAN CHINA TAJIKISTAN WAKHAN CORRIDOR Mazar e Sharif Kunduz Jammu Kashmir Kabul •Jalalabad NIS TAN IRAN Kandahar REGISTAN DESERT KIS TAN VI Gulf of Oman IN DIA OMAN AFGHANISTAN North Europe Asia Aria South America Australia Antarctica
ONE A man Parvana didn’t know gave one final pat to the dirt mounded up over her father’s grave The village mullah had already recited the jenazah the prayer for the dead The funeral service was over Small sharp stones dug into Parvana’s knees as she knelt at the edge of the grave and placed the large stones she had gathered around it She put each one down slowly There was no reason to hurry She had nowhere else to go There were not enough rocks The ones she had gathered only went halfway around the rectangle of turned up earth Spread them out a man said and he bent down to help her They spread out the stones but Parvana didn’t like the gaps She thought briefly about taking rocks from other graves but that didn’t seem right She would find more
rocks later One thing Afghanistan had was plenty of rocks Rise yourself up now boy one of the men said to her Parvana’s hair was clipped short and she wore the plain blanket shawl and shalwar kameez of a boy There is no point staying in the dirt Leave him alone another man said He is mourning for his father We all have dead to mourn but we do not have to do it in the dirt Come on boy get to your feet Be the strong son your father would be proud of Go away Parvana thought Go away and leave me alone with my father But she said nothing She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet She brushed the dust from her knees and looked around at the graveyard It was a large graveyard for such a small village The graves spread out in a haphazard pattern as if the villagers thought that each person they buried would be the last Parvana remembered digging up bones in a graveyard in Kabul with her friend Shauzia to earn money I don’t want anyone digging up my father she thought and she resolved to pile so many rocks on his grave that no one would bother him She wanted to tell people about him That he was a teacher that he had lost his leg when his school was
bombed That he had loved her and told her stories and now she was all alone in this big sad land But she kept silent The men around her were mostly old The younger ones were damaged somehow with an arm missing or only one eye or no feet All the other young men were at war or dead A lot of people have died here the man who had helped her said Sometimes we are bombed by the Taliban Sometimes we are bombed by the other side We used to be farmers Now we are targets Parvana’s father hadn’t been killed by a bomb He had Who are you with now boy Parvana’s jaw hurt as she held her face tight to keep I am alone she managed to say You will come home with me My wife will take care just died from crying of you There were only men at her father’s graveside The women had to stay in their homes The Taliban didn’t like women walking around on their own but Parvana had given up trying to understand why the Taliban hated women There were other things to think about
