Chap­ter 7: In this chap­ter, Par­vana embarks on a new jour­ney after break­fast, feel­ing both ner­vous and excit­ed as her moth­er encour­ages her to take her father’s writ­ing sup­plies to the mar­ket­place. The oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn mon­ey excites her, offer­ing a brief escape from the dai­ly respon­si­bil­i­ties of house­work. Once again, Par­vana dons her dis­guise as a boy, remov­ing the con­straints of her chador and hair, which gives her a sense of free­dom. She steps out into the bustling mar­ket, car­ry­ing her father’s shoul­der bag filled with his writ­ing tools, an out­fit to sell, and a blan­ket to sit on. As she nav­i­gates through the busy streets, she heads toward a famil­iar spot in the mar­ket­place where her father had pre­vi­ous­ly set up his stand. This place, once filled with mem­o­ries of her father’s work, brings Par­vana a sense of con­ti­nu­ity, as she knows it is a spot where her father had built a small but reli­able cus­tomer base through his con­sis­tent ser­vice.

Once set­tled in her spot, Par­vana arranges her mate­ri­als care­ful­ly, reflect­ing on the lessons her father taught her about estab­lish­ing con­nec­tions with cus­tomers. As she sets up, she recalls his advice on the impor­tance of con­sis­ten­cy and reli­a­bil­i­ty in build­ing a steady stream of busi­ness. A passer­by stops and ques­tions her about her iden­ti­ty, but Par­vana, hav­ing been well-pre­pared by her moth­er, quick­ly responds that she is Kaseem, her father’s nephew, and that her father is cur­rent­ly ill, not impris­oned. She feels a mix­ture of fear and relief as she speaks, know­ing that reveal­ing her true iden­ti­ty would put her in dan­ger. Despite her unease about work­ing as a girl in a male-dom­i­nat­ed envi­ron­ment, Par­vana draws strength from her edu­ca­tion. She knows that her abil­i­ty to read and write is a rare skill in a soci­ety where many men can­not access such oppor­tu­ni­ties, and this real­iza­tion begins to boost her con­fi­dence. Par­vana set­tles into her role, eager to start her work, though the first hour pass­es slow­ly, with no cus­tomers approach­ing her stand.

As the first hour drags on with­out any cus­tomers, Parvana’s anx­i­ety deep­ens. Just as her nerves are start­ing to get the bet­ter of her, a Tal­iban sol­dier walks up to her stand. Par­vana trem­bles with fear, but she takes a deep breath and con­firms that she is indeed the let­ter read­er, offer­ing her ser­vice to help him. The sol­dier, though intim­i­dat­ing, requests her assis­tance in read­ing an old let­ter addressed to his deceased wife, Fati­ma Azi­ma. Par­vana reads the let­ter aloud, her voice steady despite the emo­tions she feels as the words are revealed. The let­ter con­tains heart­felt sen­ti­ments from the woman’s aunt, who express­es her love and best wish­es for Fatima’s future. The sol­dier, vis­i­bly moved by the let­ter, thanks Par­vana for her help and asks her to write a response, though he ulti­mate­ly decides against send­ing it. He leaves her with pay­ment for her ser­vice, and Par­vana is left to reflect on this unex­pect­ed encounter. This meet­ing chal­lenges her ini­tial per­cep­tions of the Tal­iban, as she real­izes that even those who embody the oppres­sive regime may expe­ri­ence com­plex human emo­tions. The soldier’s sad­ness over his wife’s pass­ing shows her that every­one has their own sto­ry, and not all Tal­iban sol­diers are immune to sor­row.

As the day con­tin­ues, Par­vana begins to find a sense of rhythm in the mar­ket­place. She makes a sale of her shal­war kameez, a piece of cloth­ing that has sen­ti­men­tal val­ue to her, but she rec­og­nizes that part­ing with it is nec­es­sary to sup­port her fam­i­ly. The trans­ac­tion is bit­ter­sweet, as it marks anoth­er step in her jour­ney of sur­vival, but it also demon­strates her grow­ing bar­gain­ing skills. Although the loss of the gar­ment tugs at her heart, Par­vana under­stands that her actions are essen­tial to keep­ing her fam­i­ly fed. After work­ing for sev­er­al hours, she feels the need to take a break and clean up. The phys­i­cal exer­tion of the day weighs on her, and she longs for her father’s pres­ence and approval. How­ev­er, despite the sad­ness she feels from miss­ing him, Par­vana is uplift­ed by the mon­ey she has earned and the small sense of accom­plish­ment that comes with it. She feels proud of her abil­i­ty to suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gate the mar­ket­place and com­plete a task that once seemed insur­mount­able. As she heads home, her heart swells with pride, know­ing that her efforts have been fruit­ful. This chap­ter high­lights the inter­nal growth Par­vana expe­ri­ences as she adapts to her new life, learn­ing to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of sur­vival and fam­i­ly respon­si­bil­i­ty in a world defined by con­stant strug­gle. Her jour­ney, though fraught with chal­lenges, also demon­strates her resilience and deter­mi­na­tion to pro­vide for those she loves.