Visible Bias in The Kite Runner

There are several devious and underhanded ways in which Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner attempts to paint a narrative of Muslims/certain kinds of Muslims. Looking broadly, we see a few distinct categories, which we will explore below.

Character Tropes

The Liberal Muslim

The narrator’s father is given this trope, which paints him as a "good" Muslim because he drinks, throws lavish, gender-mixed parties with alcohol, fornicates, and says, "Fuck the Russia!" Notably, he’s in the "good" category because his religion doesn’t go past is lips. Most of the Western world likes it best when religion is just something that’s private, on the inside, and affects literally none of your life.

The Pious, Disenfranchised Shi’a

Hassan and his father, Ali, are portrayed as poor, disenfranchised but pious Muslims. Their being Shi’a is painted as just a minor variegation within Islam, as acceptable as being either Christian or Catholic. Hassan and his father’s religiosity is not a threat and is lauded as the virtue of the poor who rely on God alone. This is because the enemies of Islam will unite on everything but the truth, against the truth (Islam as it was revealed). More on the Shi’a/Sunni bias in this book later.

The Heinous, Religious Sunni

Another group of people portrayed as religious are the terrorists/rebels/Taliban (not sure which group it was, I read the book in high school so some of the minutiae is lost). The only thing I remember about this group was that they were heavily into pedophilia of young boys. Further, this was stressed as a religiously acceptable and even encouraged, practice. To this day, I cannot get over my disgust on this point, but it wasn’t made by accident.

Analysis

As we can see, the caricatures of these characters were carefully constructed. (Sorry, can we appreciate the alliteration in that sentence?!!) With the above in mind, let’s dive into some of what’s hidden on the back end.

I had heard when the book came out that the author himself was a Shi’a, but in trying to look it up now, all biographies of his are carefully devoid of giving him any religious label whatsoever, opting to just call him "Afghan." 🤔 IF the author is, in fact, Shi’a (and please correct me if this isn’t something I can say based on the information at hand), then it’s quite insidious how he chooses to tell the story: from the perspective of a Sunni narrator "realizing" how wrong his people were.

To be clear, any oppression is a crime whether Sunnis or Shi’as or kuffar are the perpetrators, it doesn’t matter. But it’s really quite underhanded to say that one group is downtrodden, but take on the voice of the other group in order to say it.

One of the biggest things I take issue with is the pedophilia which is portrayed as religious. Islam is categorically against any and all pedophilia, full stop. One of the requirements of marriage is that the person be a consenting adult, biologically and mentally. Sex acts outside of marriage are categorically forbidden, and rape is a severe offense no matter if the victim is an adult or not. The linking of the religious, "Sunni" faction with this abhorrent act is truly disgusting and means to convey causation, aouthubillah.

It comes out later in the story that the narrator’s father fornicated with his servant’s wife, and this element is completely glossed over. Just an "oops! I guess he’s just human. Anyway, his other qualities make up for this mistake." In fact, this is a disgusting and vile act he committed—which he exacerbated by not claiming the resulting child as his own. This means the boy, Hassan, was deprived of his due as regards inheritance, honor, education and upbringing, etc. Had his father behaved in an Islamic way by owning up to his mistake, Hassan would not have ended up being killed like a dog in his home country because he would have had the same advantages as the narrator, who was raised with the privilege and wealth of his father.

Expectedly, no details on Sunni / Shi’a conflict were given, not that Western audiences would care about that at all. But it’s also something glossed over as, "Oh, those religious brown folks. Always something up in the savage middle east. This is just how it’s always been."

In Summary

if you are upon deviance or liberally-minded, you can still be a good person despite being a Muslim—but if you’re religious and so-called Sunni, you’re probably a terrorist or otherwise problematic. 🙄