Chap­ter 11 of The Bread­win­ner presents an intense emo­tion­al exchange when Par­vana returns home soaked and shak­en from her dif­fi­cult day. Her moth­er, notic­ing Par­vana’s absence dur­ing the lunch hour, imme­di­ate­ly becomes con­cerned, reflect­ing the fam­i­ly’s grow­ing anx­i­ety about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of her being arrest­ed. The emo­tion­al toll on Par­vana becomes evi­dent as she breaks down and final­ly reveals the shock­ing truth of her day’s actions: she had been dig­ging up graves in a des­o­late part of Kab­ul to col­lect bones for mon­ey. This unex­pect­ed rev­e­la­tion fills her fam­i­ly with a com­bi­na­tion of shock, hor­ror, and reluc­tant accep­tance. The grim real­i­ty of liv­ing in war-torn Afghanistan is stark­ly dis­played, show­ing how des­per­ate times force peo­ple into tak­ing extreme actions just to sur­vive.

Mrs. Weera responds prac­ti­cal­ly to the sit­u­a­tion, explain­ing that bones can be sold for var­i­ous uses, such as chick­en feed or soap, which adds a lay­er of under­stand­ing to the com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion of human remains in a soci­ety over­whelmed by pover­ty. Par­vana, despite the grav­i­ty of her actions, shows her fam­i­ly the mon­ey she earned, high­light­ing how vital it is for her to con­tin­ue work­ing to sup­port the house­hold. The family’s dis­cus­sion turns to their finan­cial strug­gles, and it becomes clear that Parvana’s work is essen­tial to their sur­vival. Sur­pris­ing­ly, Noo­ria sup­ports her sister’s deci­sion, acknowl­edg­ing that the family’s dwin­dling resources mean that Par­vana must help how­ev­er she can. Nooria’s under­stand­ing sig­nals the harsh real­i­ty they all face, where sur­vival becomes a shared respon­si­bil­i­ty in such an oppres­sive envi­ron­ment.

Parvana’s moth­er, though ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, agrees to Parvana’s con­tin­ued work, set­ting the con­di­tion that she must report back to her reg­u­lar­ly. With this reluc­tant approval, Par­vana and her friend Shauzia decide to change their approach, choos­ing to sell lighter, less grim items such as cig­a­rettes and gum in the mar­ket instead of con­tin­u­ing with grave dig­ging. Their spir­its lift as they start this new ven­ture, and they begin to make a steady income. The work offers them a brief sense of nor­mal­cy and a step toward finan­cial inde­pen­dence, though the real­i­ty of their world still looms heav­i­ly over them. Sell­ing goods gives them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn mon­ey in a less grue­some man­ner, and for a moment, they allow them­selves to believe that their efforts could improve their lives, despite the con­stant chal­lenges they face.

How­ev­er, their new ven­ture soon takes a dark­er turn when they decide to sell their wares at a soc­cer game. Instead of the antic­i­pat­ed excite­ment and oppor­tu­ni­ty, they are con­front­ed with a ter­ri­fy­ing sight: a pub­lic exe­cu­tion car­ried out by the Tal­iban. The bru­tal pun­ish­ment of thieves in front of the crowd leaves Par­vana and Shauzia par­a­lyzed with fear. This trau­mat­ic event sharply con­trasts their hopes for a bet­ter future and serves as a stark reminder of the ever-present dan­ger sur­round­ing them. Wit­ness­ing such vio­lence rein­forces the grim real­i­ty that even small acts of nor­mal­cy are fraught with risk in a city con­trolled by fear and oppres­sion. The expe­ri­ence leaves both girls shak­en, their brief sense of safe­ty shat­tered by the harsh­ness of the world they must nav­i­gate dai­ly.

The chap­ter con­cludes with a moment of fleet­ing relief when a kind stranger helps Par­vana and Shauzia escape the ter­ri­fy­ing scene. His inter­ven­tion pro­vides them with a brief escape from the chaos and vio­lence, but it also under­scores the per­va­sive fear that defines their exis­tence in Kab­ul. This act of kind­ness, while offer­ing a momen­tary reprieve, high­lights the con­stant strug­gle for safe­ty and nor­mal­cy in a city where both are scarce. As the chap­ter ends, Par­vana and Shauzia’s jour­ney con­tin­ues, marked by uncer­tain­ty and the ever-present pos­si­bil­i­ty of dan­ger. The chap­ter poignant­ly cap­tures the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of sur­vival in a war-torn world, where hope and fear coex­ist, and where moments of kind­ness are fleet­ing yet vital in the bat­tle for sur­vival.