Chap­ter 9: In this chap­ter, Par­vana is unex­pect­ed­ly reunit­ed with her old school­mate, Shauzia, while work­ing in the mar­ket. Ini­tial­ly, Shauzia hes­i­tates and cau­tious­ly asks Par­vana what she is called, to which Par­vana responds with the name “Kaseem” to main­tain her dis­guise. They exchange a few words about their respec­tive work, and Shauzia men­tions that she needs to return to her tea shop before she blends back into the bustling crowd. As Par­vana watch­es her friend dis­ap­pear, she reflects on how dis­tant their rela­tion­ship was back in school and real­izes that many oth­er girls in Kab­ul are fac­ing sim­i­lar strug­gles in their dai­ly lives. This chance encounter makes Par­vana more aware of the shared hard­ships that define the lives of the girls around her, each of them striv­ing for sur­vival in an oppres­sive envi­ron­ment.

While they walk togeth­er, Shauzia offers Par­vana some dried apri­cots, a rare and pre­cious treat in their cir­cum­stances. This small act of kind­ness brings Par­vana a sense of com­fort, as it reminds her of a sim­pler time before the harsh­ness of war took over their lives. As they talk, the two girls open up about their families—Shauzia shares the painful news that her broth­er is miss­ing in Iran and that her father has passed away, while Par­vana tells her that her father was arrest­ed by the Tal­iban. Shauzia’s grim out­look on the fate of those who are arrest­ed leaves Par­vana feel­ing upset, but she refus­es to lose hope and clings to the belief that her father will even­tu­al­ly return. Their con­ver­sa­tion, filled with shared sor­row, also serves as a reminder of the deep emo­tion­al toll that war and repres­sion have tak­en on their lives, yet they both con­tin­ue to hold onto their indi­vid­ual threads of hope.

As the con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues, Shauzia shifts the focus to ways of mak­ing mon­ey in a more sus­tain­able way. She sug­gests that they could sell items from a tray, allow­ing them to be mobile in the mar­ket, a much-need­ed source of income for both girls. Par­vana dreams of con­tin­u­ing her work read­ing let­ters for the peo­ple of Kab­ul, feel­ing that it gives her a sense of pur­pose, even in such dark times. As they rem­i­nisce about their days in school, they find brief solace in shared mem­o­ries of a time when their lives were less defined by fear and sur­vival. The sense of cama­raderie between them grows stronger as they real­ize they still have a con­nec­tion, despite the years that have passed and the changes in their lives. These moments of reflec­tion and shared mem­o­ries remind them of the human­i­ty that still exists beneath the sur­face of their strug­gle.

At Par­vana’s home, her fam­i­ly warm­ly wel­comes Shauzia, even though she has claimed that her moth­er is ill and that her family’s sit­u­a­tion is tumul­tuous. They talk about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of start­ing a secret school for girls, a con­cept that Mrs. Weera is deter­mined to lead, offer­ing a glim­mer of hope in the midst of their oppres­sion. Shauzia, known for her sharp wit, adds some much-need­ed humor to their dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion, while Mrs. Weer­a’s res­olute deter­mi­na­tion injects ener­gy into the con­ver­sa­tion. The idea of a secret school becomes a sym­bol of defi­ance against the Taliban’s restric­tions on girls’ edu­ca­tion, rep­re­sent­ing a small but sig­nif­i­cant act of rebel­lion. As the dis­cus­sion con­tin­ues, Par­vana feels a sense of sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port in the room, know­ing that they are all work­ing toward a com­mon goal, despite the over­whelm­ing obsta­cles they face.

The chap­ter high­lights the ongo­ing strug­gle for sur­vival that Par­vana and Shauzia must endure in a world where every day is marked by fear and repres­sion. Yet, amid the despair, the con­ver­sa­tion about cre­at­ing a secret school offers a sense of hope for the future, as the girls and their fam­i­lies hold onto the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a bet­ter life. The idea of edu­ca­tion as a form of resis­tance against the Taliban’s oppres­sive regime sym­bol­izes their resilience and deter­mi­na­tion to pre­serve their human­i­ty in the face of adver­si­ty. How­ev­er, under­ly­ing their con­ver­sa­tions and aspi­ra­tions are the fears and uncer­tain­ties that still lurk, espe­cial­ly in Shauzia’s reluc­tance to ful­ly embrace their new mon­ey-mak­ing scheme. As the chap­ter con­cludes, Par­vana is left feel­ing uneasy about the future, know­ing that the choic­es they make will be crit­i­cal in deter­min­ing their paths for­ward in such a tur­bu­lent and dan­ger­ous world.