The chap­ter con­tains a glos­sary of terms rel­e­vant to the con­text of the book “Bread­win­ner.” Each term is defined suc­cinct­ly to aid in under­stand­ing the cul­tur­al and lin­guis­tic aspects pre­sent­ed in the nar­ra­tive.

It begins with “burqa,” described as a long, tent-like gar­ment worn by women, which cov­ers the entire body, leav­ing only a nar­row mesh screen over the eyes for vis­i­bil­i­ty. Fol­low­ing this is “chador,” ref­er­enc­ing the piece of cloth used by women and girls for cov­er­ing hair and shoul­ders.

Next is “Dari,” one of Afghanistan’s two pri­ma­ry lan­guages, not­ed along­side “Pash­tu,” the oth­er main lan­guage. The glos­sary also con­tex­tu­al­izes cul­tur­al prac­tices, such as “Eid,” the Mus­lim fes­ti­val mark­ing the end of Ramadan, where cel­e­bra­tions occur.

In terms of every­day items, “karachi” describes a hand-pushed cart used in mar­kets, while “kebab” refers to pieces of meat grilled on skew­ers. The glos­sary includes safe­ty ref­er­ences, such as “land mine,” a hid­den explo­sive device that det­o­nates upon pres­sure.

Food items are also men­tioned, with “nan,” which is tra­di­tion­al Afghan bread avail­able in var­i­ous shapes. The term “pat­tu” iden­ti­fies a gray or brown woolen shawl worn by Afghan men and boys, con­tribut­ing to the under­stand­ing of local attire.

The descrip­tion of cloth­ing con­tin­ues with “shal­war kameez,” iden­ti­fy­ing a loose-fit­ting out­fit com­pris­ing a long shirt and trousers worn by both gen­ders. Dif­fer­ences are detailed between men’s and wom­en’s attire, with men’s designs being sim­pler and wom­en’s fea­tur­ing elab­o­rate embroi­dery.

The glos­sary also touch­es upon his­tor­i­cal con­text, briefly dis­cussing the “Soviets”—referring to the Sovi­et Union before its dissolution—and the “Tal­iban,” a mil­i­tant group con­trol­ling Kab­ul between 1996 and 2001.

Last­ly, “toshak” is men­tioned as a nar­row mat­tress com­mon­ly used in Afghan homes instead of stan­dard seat­ing or beds, high­light­ing the liv­ing con­di­tions and cul­tur­al prac­tices preva­lent in the region.

Over­all, this glos­sary serves as a vital tool for read­ers to grasp the terms and cul­tur­al ref­er­ences found with­in the book, enrich­ing their under­stand­ing of the nar­ra­tive’s set­ting and char­ac­ters.

The glos­sary of “The Bread­win­ner” pro­vides essen­tial def­i­n­i­tions of terms rel­e­vant to the cul­tur­al and geo­graph­i­cal con­text of the sto­ry. Key terms include:

- **burqa**: A full-body gar­ment for women, fea­tur­ing a nar­row mesh screen over the eyes.
— **chador**: A cloth cov­er­ing for wom­en’s hair and shoul­ders.
— **Dari**: One of Afghanistan’s two pri­ma­ry lan­guages.
— **Eid**: A sig­nif­i­cant Mus­lim fes­ti­val mark­ing the end of Ramadan.
— **karachi**: A hand-pushed cart used for sell­ing goods in mar­kets.
— **kebab**: Skew­ered and grilled pieces of meat.
— **land mine**: A soil-embed­ded bomb trig­gered by pres­sure.
— **nan**: Afghan bread that comes in var­i­ous shapes.
— **Pash­tu**: The sec­ond major lan­guage spo­ken in Afghanistan.
— **pat­tu**: A tra­di­tion­al woolen shawl worn by men and boys.
— **shal­war kameez**: A tra­di­tion­al out­fit con­sist­ing of a long shirt and trousers, dif­fer­ing in style between men and women.
— **Sovi­ets**: Refers to the for­mer Sovi­et Union, encom­pass­ing Rus­sia and its affil­i­at­ed com­mu­nist nations.
— **Tal­iban**: The mil­i­tant group that seized con­trol of Kab­ul in 1996, lat­er oust­ed in 2001.
— **toshak**: A nar­row mat­tress, com­mon­ly uti­lized in Afghan house­holds as a sub­sti­tute for chairs or beds.

This glos­sary pro­vides cru­cial insights into the cul­tur­al prac­tices, lan­guage, and sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ences inher­ent to Afghan soci­ety, facil­i­tat­ing read­ers’ bet­ter under­stand­ing of the nar­ra­tive’s set­ting and themes. The def­i­n­i­tions aim to famil­iar­ize read­ers with terms that may not be com­mon­ly known out­side of Afghanistan, reflect­ing the book’s empha­sis on the soci­etal and cul­tur­al land­scape that shapes the char­ac­ters’ lives. The knowl­edge of these terms enhances read­ers’ com­pre­hen­sion of the char­ac­ters’ dai­ly strug­gles, tra­di­tions, and their inter­ac­tions with­in the con­text of the sto­ry, por­tray­ing a vivid pic­ture of life in Afghanistan dur­ing a tumul­tuous peri­od.