Chap­ter 11: In this chap­ter, Par­vana comes home, drenched from the rain and emo­tion­al­ly exhaust­ed, her heart weighed down by the dis­tress of the day. As she steps through the door, her moth­er, notic­ing the change in her demeanor, imme­di­ate­ly asks what has hap­pened. After a moment of hes­i­ta­tion and inner tur­moil, Par­vana admits to spend­ing the day dig­ging up graves, a rev­e­la­tion that leaves her fam­i­ly in shock. This action, dri­ven by their des­per­ate need for mon­ey, forces Par­vana and her fam­i­ly to con­front the grim real­i­ty of sur­vival in a coun­try torn apart by war. Parvana’s admis­sion sparks a pro­found dis­cus­sion on the dire state of their lives in Afghanistan, where the dead are no longer safe from exploita­tion in the bat­tle for basic sur­vival. While Moth­er express­es deep sor­row over the loss of dig­ni­ty in such actions, Mrs. Weera, ever prac­ti­cal, reminds them that the bones have val­ue and can be repur­posed for sur­vival. This prag­mat­ic approach to their sit­u­a­tion high­lights the emo­tion­al con­flict Par­vana feels—caught between moral­i­ty and the unde­ni­able need to sur­vive.

Noo­ria, Parvana’s old­er sis­ter, takes every­one by sur­prise when she argues in favor of Par­vana con­tin­u­ing this work, empha­siz­ing that the fam­i­ly is strug­gling to make ends meet. The income Par­vana earns from read­ing let­ters is not enough to sus­tain them, and Noo­ria sees the grave-dig­ging work as a nec­es­sary evil in their harsh envi­ron­ment. Though their moth­er ini­tial­ly resists the idea of her daugh­ter con­tin­u­ing such a grim task, Noo­ria and Mrs. Weera con­vince her that they are liv­ing in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances where the usu­al moral bound­aries must be reeval­u­at­ed. Ulti­mate­ly, they reach a compromise—Parvana will con­tin­ue to work as long as she also writes about her expe­ri­ences for a mag­a­zine. This solu­tion pro­vides a way for Par­vana to con­tribute finan­cial­ly to the fam­i­ly with­out being ful­ly sub­merged in the moral­ly trou­bling work. The fam­i­ly’s deci­sion reflects the impos­si­ble choic­es they must make in a world where sur­vival often requires sac­ri­fic­ing per­son­al val­ues in order to stay afloat.

In the days that fol­low, Par­vana dives into her new ven­ture with Shauzia. Togeth­er, they man­age to earn enough mon­ey to buy small trays for sell­ing light­weight goods in the mar­ket. Items like cig­a­rettes and chew­ing gum, though triv­ial, begin to offer them a steady stream of income. Par­vana feels a sense of relief as she moves away from the grave-dig­ging work, gain­ing con­fi­dence and inde­pen­dence as she learns to nav­i­gate the mar­ket streets of Kab­ul. The sense of lib­er­a­tion she feels from no longer need­ing to unearth bones is pro­found, as she begins to find a rhythm in her new life. Despite the hard­ships, this new work gives her a glimpse of a life out­side the shad­ows of the war, one where she can take on respon­si­bil­i­ties that are less grotesque but still nec­es­sary for sur­vival. The oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with the out­side world, even in such a small way, feels like a step toward reclaim­ing a sense of nor­mal­cy amidst the chaos.

One day, while Par­vana and Shauzia are sell­ing their goods in the streets, they notice a crowd gath­er­ing in the direc­tion of a near­by sports sta­di­um. Intrigued by the poten­tial for busi­ness, they decide to join the crowd, hop­ing to sell more items to the peo­ple attend­ing the event. How­ev­er, when they arrive at the sta­di­um, they are struck by an eerie silence, the usu­al buzz of excite­ment com­plete­ly absent. As they move clos­er, they real­ize that the event is not a cel­e­bra­tion, but rather a grotesque dis­play of pun­ish­ment orches­trat­ed by the Tal­iban. What was sup­posed to be a pub­lic spec­ta­cle of sports has turned into a chill­ing show of ter­ror, with the Tal­iban using the event to pub­licly exe­cute thieves. The crowd watch­es in a tense, uncom­fort­able silence as the sev­ered hands of the thieves are dis­played, a bru­tal reminder of the regime’s mer­ci­less approach to jus­tice.

This hor­ri­fy­ing scene deeply unset­tles Par­vana and Shauzia, leav­ing them shak­en and fear­ful of the dan­ger that con­stant­ly looms over them. They man­age to blend into the crowd, try­ing to remain unno­ticed, but the cru­el­ty of what they’ve just wit­nessed lingers in their minds. Thank­ful­ly, kind strangers notice their dis­tress and dis­creet­ly help them escape the scene, guid­ing them out of harm’s way. As they leave the sta­di­um, the image of the young Tal­ib man flaunt­ing his gris­ly tro­phies stays with them, a chill­ing reminder of the bru­tal­i­ty of the regime they live under. The episode marks a turn­ing point for Par­vana, fur­ther deep­en­ing her under­stand­ing of the harsh real­i­ties of the world she now inhab­its. The cru­el­ty, which has been nor­mal­ized in Kab­ul, leaves an indeli­ble mark on her, remind­ing her that safe­ty is nev­er guar­an­teed in a place ruled by ter­ror and fear. The chap­ter ends on this haunt­ing note, as Par­vana and Shauzia are left to process the trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence and reflect on the dan­ger­ous world around them.