The reason I say this is because it shows a side of that lifestyle, a life ruled by the Taliban, that is sort of glazed over in other novels set during the same time period. For example, an incident within the novel greatly describes a public stoning of a man and a woman. It doesn't tell you why the two are stoned, as it's told through the perspective of a single male character named Amir and he doesn't know, but it still gives you a sense of the horror and disgust that people, repressed people, felt for events such as that. The novel follows Amir throughout his life from a child growing up in a free Kabul, to a grown man living in America, returning to Kabul to find his recently discovered half-brother's son. I'm really enjoying it, mainly because of my disgust towards the rules and reasoning that the Taliban are presented to have. Sure the book has the riveting aspects of a good novel, like the emotional turmoil, the self discovery, romance, heartbreak etc. But it's the events that took place, the journalistic elements you could say, that are really intriguing me.
One this day in 1980, a rescue mission, code named Operation Eagle Claw, to retrieve 52 hostages from the U.S embassy in Iran was aborted due to equipment failures. The hostage situation developed after a group of students took over the embassy in support of Iran's revolution.
Eight helicopters were sent on the mission. However, two suffered damage from a sand storm, forcing one to crash land and the other to return to the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), an air craft carrier. Arriving at the initial rendezvous point, Desert One, another helicopter suffered damage and couldn't take off again. A total of 5 helicopters remained operational and as the plan called for a minimum of six helicopters to succeed, the mission was aborted.
However, this is when the real tragedy struck.
As the force prepared to leave the base, one of the helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft, containing fuel and a group of servicemen. The resulting fire destroyed both aircrafts and the remaining helicopters could not leave the base. Eight American servicemen were killed.
The hostages were held for 444 days until the 19th January 1981, when the Algiers Accords was brokered by the Algerian government between the USA and Iran to resolve the situation.
After reading this, I couldn't help but relate it back to things in the novel. Tragedy can strike anywhere and in war zones it's likely to be because of higher authorities disputes than actually something that the average, repressed man has done. The eight men that died were ordered by a higher power to be a part of the rescue mission. They lost their lives because ultimately they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The hostages were kept hostage because of issues relating to an external source. That is to say that they were hostages because the students disagreed with the behaviour of America and its involvement in their country. The people working at the embassy were just that: workers. Through no fault of their own had Iran been over-run. They were just doing what the higher power ordered them to.
And this is where my disgust and confusion for the Taliban comes in. In the novel, the stoning incident is preceded by a Taliban member giving a long speech about how God is influencing he decisions that he makes, that it is because of his God that he has been told to stone this could to death. I could rabbit on and on about how this just doesn't seem like a justified reasoning. The novel also mentions the Hazara massacre, where members of the Taliban went door to door killing members of the Hazara ethnicity just because they were Hazaras. Again, I could rabbit on and on. Instead I'll just say this:
Is it wrong for me to wonder that if God did exist, why did he make people like this?
Image available: www.historyguy.com/iran-us_hostage_crisis.html
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