childhood and adulthood also further reiterates the political tension and upheaval caused by the unruly dictatorship that led the country into political upheaval. The Taliban’s influence in the novel also further depicts how life for the Afghan’s has been widely and notoriously difficult due to the ever−expanding political ideologies and reforms that have been pushed onto the citizens of Afghanistan. Matinuddin states that:

The Taliban, like all other Afghans, possess not only physical courage and a capacity to withstand extreme hardship, but they also have a strong belief in the verses of the Holy Koran which say that a man killed in a jihad becomes a Shaheed whose spirit immediately goes to heaven. (Matinuddin, 1999, p.33)

Hosseini’s novel does indeed