Chap­ter 5: In this chap­ter, Par­vana sets out to the mar­ket­place with­out her father by her side, feel­ing a sense of unease with every step she takes. The absence of her father weighs heav­i­ly on her, and the oppres­sive restric­tions placed by the Tal­iban only make the sit­u­a­tion more daunt­ing. Women are for­bid­den from enter­ing shops or engag­ing freely in pub­lic life, leav­ing Par­vana with the task of nav­i­gat­ing the mar­ket­place while dis­guised as a boy. She makes the deci­sion to buy bread from the bak­er, using her chador to con­ceal her iden­ti­ty as she waits for her order. The hunger she feels is near­ly unbear­able, and she finds her­self long­ing to con­sume an entire loaf, her body crav­ing the nour­ish­ment it des­per­ate­ly needs. This fleet­ing moment of peace in the mar­ket­place is over­shad­owed by the loom­ing sense of dan­ger that fol­lows her every move.

As Par­vana waits for her bread, she is sud­den­ly con­front­ed by a Tal­ib sol­dier, who aggres­sive­ly chal­lenges her pres­ence and attire. His harsh ques­tion­ing sends a wave of fear through Par­vana, as he demands to know who her male guardians are and threat­ens her with pun­ish­ment. Par­vana, des­per­ate to pro­tect her­self, shouts back at him before flee­ing, her heart rac­ing as she tries to escape his wrath. The sol­dier rais­es his stick in a men­ac­ing ges­ture, but Par­vana runs as fast as she can, knock­ing over veg­eta­bles and cre­at­ing a chaot­ic scene as she sprints through the mar­ket­place. Despite her fear, the warmth of the bread in her hands is a small com­fort, ground­ing her in the midst of the ter­ri­fy­ing encounter. Her only focus is reach­ing home safe­ly, her pulse pound­ing as she weaves through the crowd, deter­mined to out­run the dan­ger that shad­ows her every move.

In her haste, Par­vana acci­den­tal­ly bumps into Mrs. Weera, a famil­iar face who imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­nizes her. Mrs. Weera is con­cerned by Parvana’s hur­ried and anx­ious demeanor, and she gen­tly encour­ages her to calm down. As the two walk togeth­er, Mrs. Weera sug­gests vis­it­ing Par­vana’s home, as it has been a long time since she had a chance to speak with her moth­er. Par­vana reluc­tant­ly agrees, feel­ing a mix of relief and anx­i­ety at the thought of bring­ing some­one into their home. She leads the way, her mind cloud­ed with wor­ry about her moth­er’s health and the state of their house­hold, unsure of how the vis­it will unfold. The ten­sion in the air is pal­pa­ble, yet Mrs. Weer­a’s steady pres­ence offers a sense of reas­sur­ance as Par­vana tries to push aside her own grow­ing con­cerns about their future.

Upon arriv­ing home, Noo­ria notices the bread imme­di­ate­ly, a brief moment of nor­mal­cy in an oth­er­wise tense sit­u­a­tion. Mrs. Weera intro­duces her­self to Noo­ria, and the younger sis­ter quick­ly relax­es, grate­ful for the pres­ence of an adult who can help shoul­der some of the family’s bur­dens. Mrs. Weera wastes no time in step­ping in, tak­ing charge as she learns of the family’s strug­gles, includ­ing their mother’s ill­ness and the lack of resources they are con­stant­ly bat­tling. She lis­tens intent­ly as Noo­ria and Par­vana describe their dif­fi­cul­ties, offer­ing words of com­fort and sup­port as the fam­i­ly strug­gles to stay afloat. Despite the grim real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion, Mrs. Weera’s ener­getic dis­po­si­tion and prac­ti­cal atti­tude pro­vide a glim­mer of hope, show­ing them that they don’t have to face their chal­lenges alone. Her resolve to help Parvana’s fam­i­ly is unwa­ver­ing, and her abil­i­ty to take con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion adds a sense of sta­bil­i­ty in an oth­er­wise unsta­ble envi­ron­ment.

As the day wears on, Par­vana con­tin­ues to take on her respon­si­bil­i­ties, even though exhaus­tion is begin­ning to take its toll on her. She goes out­side to fetch water, her body aching with every step, but she push­es through, know­ing that it is nec­es­sary to care for her fam­i­ly. How­ev­er, when she tries to drink some of the untreat­ed water she has col­lect­ed, Noo­ria scolds her for not boil­ing it first, remind­ing her of the dan­gers of drink­ing such water in their harsh real­i­ty. The ten­sion in the house is pal­pa­ble as Par­vana and Noo­ria try to keep the younger chil­dren qui­et while the fam­i­ly deals with the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal strain of their sit­u­a­tion. As the chap­ter clos­es, there is a sense of ten­ta­tive hope as Mrs. Weera stays the night with them, sug­gest­ing that they might need to come up with new strate­gies to cope with their ongo­ing strug­gles. While the future remains uncer­tain, the sup­port of Mrs. Weera pro­vides a small but impor­tant sense of sta­bil­i­ty for Par­vana and her fam­i­ly, who con­tin­ue to endure in a world fraught with hard­ship and dan­ger. Despite the over­whelm­ing chal­lenges, there is a glim­mer of pos­si­bil­i­ty that they might find a way to nav­i­gate their way through the tur­moil that sur­rounds them.