Bookseller of Kabul, by Asne

¶ … Bookseller of Kabul, by Asne Selerstad

"The Bookseller of Kabul" is a great inside view of the Afghan society, told by author Asne Selerstad through the eyes of family members of a traditional yet somehow upper class family at the beginning of the 2000s. Under the four rooms of the house, Selerstad spent several months with an Afghan family that consisted of a husband, Sultan Khan, two wives, five children and other relatives. As she presents in the Foreword, she was welcomed with open arms in Sultan Kahn's home.

Sultan Khan is a bookseller, a man who has put all his energies in creating conditions as good as times allowed to sell books in a cultural, political and social environment that sometimes didn't allow this properly. His love for books, as the most important way in which information, ideas and even hope travel, has made him take high risks in the times of Communists or Talibans. Yet his determination and courage made him last as one of the most important pillars of normality in what looks like an abnormal society.

The bookseller is married to Sharifa, a proud and courageous woman, yet still embedded in the Islamic centered society as she accepts her condition in a society that usually doesn't see women as many of Khan's books do. Besides being an amazing depiction of a newly freed country from the Taliban rule, "The Bookseller of Kabul" is also a great tool to better understand the condition of women in a Muslim society and especially in a very peculiar one like Afghanistan. The book actually begins with the story of Khan's proposal to his to-be second wife, Sonya, a 16-year-old girl. As customs was in their tribe, and not only, he could marry more than one woman and she should be a member of his large tribe. The author introduces us in the world of bargain, traditions and a cultural approach that would be inacceptable in a Western society.

The power and rights that women have in Selerstad's Afghanistan's society is usually non-existent, and the episode of Khan's second wife offers just that perspective. He chose three candidates to marry them and, using the pretext of negotiating for a friend he was able to buy Sonya, the first choice he made. As prices are common in Afghan society to buy girls for marriage he was able to convince her parents to sell her. What is more interesting than just the mechanics of this is the reaction of the girl. It is prohibited for a young girl to have an opinion on such a matter. Therefore her reaction was to say nothing, and give her consent. The marriage would help her, as it increased her social status, and helped her family financially. It is interesting to see that, within the family, women do not have enough influence to change things they way they see fit. Although Sharifa expressed her discontent with a second wife, she accepted her faith as tradition and religion is more important than personal opinions or, in a Western view, rights.

What Khan is doing within his family might be looked as what he is doing inside his book shop. He is keeping everything in a preset order, and things are supposed to be done in a certain way. Regarding the conditions in which he treats the women in his house, one of the best examples in what regards family, social life and education is his younger sister, Leila. Her role in the house is similar to a cook and a cleaning person or a slave that is not allowed to stay outside for too long and has to be ready to serve any of the males entering the Khan house. Leila has dreams and hopes of becoming a teacher, or getting married or continuing her education as she had good English knowledge from the pre-Taliban school system. All her dreams and hopes are shattered by society, her family and traditions. And, as many women in Afghanistan do, when it becomes too complicated they stop and forget about what they really want to do with their lives. As sometimes the author hints, their lives are not their own, but their path in life is what their family and society directs. As with the teaching certificate that Leila is trying hard to obtain, the more she got into the Afghan bureaucracy, the harder the process is, until it become almost improbable.

Selerstad offers the perspective of a world in which women and children have no or little say in their lives. What surprises is not the rules or customs that the Afghan Islamic world has, but the passivity of women, in this case. Although aware that things could and should be a bit more different, they do not act against the current because it is too hard. It seems that not only a sort of courage is missing here, but also a more common vision for the women in the Khan world for example. When a situation becomes more and more difficult, the women in Leila's family do not encourage her or help her in her courageous desires, but pull her back into the burka world. As Leila joins an English class, she discovers that in her class there are many boys. Her fear of talking without permission in public, her ingrained sense of humility makes her doubt her own capabilities and English knowledge. This, alongside with the pulling back mentioned before, make her quit another dream that she had.

One of the things that the author points in the book regarding family relations, with a strong effect on the societal relations, is therefore the weak or non-existent support that girl or young boys receive from family members. As Leila encounters a young man that also believes in her dreams of continuing education and working, her family does all that they can to push her away from a different type of life than the one inscribed on her. Mansur, her brother, works together with her mother, Sharifa, to push the young man away from Leila and to introduce in Leila's life one of her cousins, a man that would offer her the same life she had until then.