Chap­ter 1 of The Bread­win­ner intro­duces us to Par­vana, an eleven-year-old girl who lives under the oppres­sive and suf­fo­cat­ing rule of the Tal­iban in Kab­ul, Afghanistan. Par­vana’s world is one filled with lim­i­ta­tions, where the free­doms that many take for grant­ed are denied to her sim­ply because of her gen­der. She reflects on the fact that her father, a for­mer teacher who was wound­ed in a bomb­ing and left with a per­ma­nent­ly dis­abled leg, is the one who has the priv­i­lege of read­ing and writ­ing. Par­vana qui­et­ly longs to be able to read as her father does, wish­ing she could escape the con­fines of her restrict­ed life and par­tic­i­pate more ful­ly in the world around her. For the past year, Par­vana has been forced to stay indoors with her moth­er and younger sib­lings due to the Tal­iban’s strict laws pro­hibit­ing women and girls from leav­ing their homes, receiv­ing an edu­ca­tion, or work­ing. The dras­tic changes that have upend­ed her life reflect the harsh and unjust regime that has tak­en con­trol of Afghanistan.

Despite the heavy restric­tions placed on her, Par­vana still finds ways to con­tribute to her family’s sur­vival. She helps her father nav­i­gate the crowd­ed mar­ket­place, where he works read­ing let­ters for illit­er­ate cus­tomers. This small act, while ful­fill­ing a vital role in their dai­ly lives, also serves as a reminder of the harsh cir­cum­stances they now face. Par­vana sits qui­et­ly by her father’s side, her face hid­den beneath the chador, aware of the ever-present dan­ger that lurks in the form of the Tal­iban sol­diers patrolling the mar­ket. Their watch­ful eyes are a con­stant reminder that any mis­step could lead to severe pun­ish­ment. The mar­ket­place, once a vibrant cen­ter of activ­i­ty, has now become a space of qui­et ten­sion and anx­i­ety. As Par­vana sits there, watch­ing the men shop and the street ven­dors sell their goods, she yearns to be a part of it. She longs for the days when she could walk freely and engage in the world around her, but the polit­i­cal cli­mate and the weight of the regime’s oppres­sion pre­vent her from doing so. This stark con­trast between her cur­rent life and her past reflects the deep per­son­al loss she feels as her world is reduced to one cen­tered around sur­vival.

As Par­vana watch­es the bustling mar­ket­place, her thoughts inevitably drift to the mem­o­ries of her past life, before the Tal­iban’s rule cast a shad­ow over Kab­ul. She longs for the days when she was able to attend school, engage with her friends, and learn about the world, par­tic­u­lar­ly her favorite sub­ject, his­to­ry. The world of the past seems like a dis­tant dream, and the absence of these basic free­doms is deeply painful for her. Par­vana recalls the sto­ries of Afghanistan’s great con­querors, feel­ing a con­nec­tion to the his­to­ry of her coun­try even though the present is dom­i­nat­ed by fear and oppres­sion. These mem­o­ries become a source of solace for Par­vana, giv­ing her a sense of pride in her cul­ture and her­itage despite the oppres­sive cir­cum­stances. Yet, the harsh real­i­ty she faces stands in stark con­trast to these reflec­tions. Par­vana’s life has shift­ed from one filled with edu­ca­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ty to one marked by con­fine­ment and the con­stant strug­gle for sur­vival. The chap­ter poignant­ly illus­trates the bit­ter­sweet nature of Parvana’s expe­ri­ences, as she must nav­i­gate the painful real­i­ty of liv­ing in a world that has been turned upside down. The vibrant life she once knew, full of hope and oppor­tu­ni­ty, has been replaced by an exis­tence root­ed in fear, iso­la­tion, and sac­ri­fice. As Par­vana and her father make their way home through Kab­ul’s unsafe and dam­aged streets, the con­trast between the past and present becomes even more appar­ent. The city that was once a sym­bol of pos­si­bil­i­ty now bears the scars of war, leav­ing behind only mem­o­ries of what Kab­ul once was. Par­vana and her fam­i­ly are left to nav­i­gate a world where hope is increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to find, and sur­vival is their only focus.