Soyara
Amir is finding love and the relationship between his father and he is becoming so beautiful. From what I understand, about Afghani marriages, they are arranged by the parents. Negotiations are made regarding the amounts and kinds of gif6ts to be exchanged between the families. The groom’s family pays a “bride-price: and the bride’s family pays a dowry. There is traditionally a tea and sweet ceremony, called a Promising Ceremony,” where the groom’s families’ women serve tea in the ceremony and then send the empty tray is filled with money and taken to the bride’s family. The engagement is then announced.
Weddings are typically three day’s long and the groom’s family is responsible for the costs. The first day is a time for the two families to get to know one another. The second day, the groom leads a procession on horseback and musicians and dancers follow him around the streets. On the third night is the wedding ceremonial signing of the marriage contract in front of witnesses.
The move to America has changed some of the traditional aspects of courtship and weddings in the American Afghani culture, for some. They still forge connections between the two families. As the negotiations for Amir and Soraya come to an end, Amir is told that Soraya needs to talk to him. “I don’t want to start with secrets.” She reveals that she is not a virgin; in fact, she is much like Hassan’s mother, a woman who ran away with another man. To make it even more parallel, her mother had a stroke because of it and she says, “I felt so guilty”. (p173)
The deeper introduction to Soraya and the ceremonial aspect, helps us understand the role of traditional Afghani women and Soyara seems to stand for the American Afghani women. What is auspicious is her treatment from the Afghan community that highlights that the double standards, in the traditional culture is still very much alive in the American Afghani culture and that it applies to men and women in that community.
Amir understands guilt well, of course and thinks, “How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?… I envied her. Her secret was out…” I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was one of them.” (p174) He is moving away from his denial. He is opening the door for his atonement. He realizes he is not the only one with regrets. The Reader begins to exhale for Amir.
By becoming aware of Soraya’s past, Amir is forced to learn that he is not the only person with regrets. In other words, Amir gains some humanity and perspective in this passage, contributing to his eventual redemption. There is a way to be good again. He is beginning. The reader knows….the reader knows…we can not…how could we?
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