Chap­ter 5 of The Bread­win­ner begins with Par­vana, feel­ing the weight of respon­si­bil­i­ty as she ven­tures into the mar­ket­place alone for the first time with­out her father. Under Tal­iban rule, women are heav­i­ly restrict­ed, and Par­vana is unsure of how to nav­i­gate the mar­ket. She knows that women are gen­er­al­ly not allowed to enter shops, but deter­mined to feed her fam­i­ly, she wraps her chador tight­ly around her face and approach­es the bak­er. She orders ten loaves of bread, and as the fresh aro­ma fills the air, it inten­si­fies her hunger, rein­forc­ing her desire to com­plete the task. The bread becomes a sym­bol of sur­vival, and as she waits for her order, she con­tem­plates the dif­fi­cul­ty of her posi­tion, know­ing that each step out­side of her home is fraught with risk and fear.

While at the fruit and veg­etable stand, Par­vana is sud­den­ly con­front­ed by a sol­dier who accus­es her of being out in pub­lic with­out the prop­er cov­er­age. He demands that she cov­er her­self ful­ly and threat­ens pun­ish­ment for her fam­i­ly if she is allowed to con­tin­ue walk­ing unescort­ed. Par­vana, over­whelmed by fear yet des­per­ate for the bread, yells back at the sol­dier, which caus­es him to hes­i­tate momen­tar­i­ly. Seiz­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty, she runs from him, knock­ing over a pile of turnips in the process. As she races through the mar­ket­place, she holds the warm bread tight­ly, pay­ing lit­tle atten­tion to the stares and whis­pers of those around her. The fear of being pun­ished or arrest­ed pro­pels her for­ward, her heart rac­ing with the urgency of return­ing home safe­ly with the loaves of bread.

In the midst of her hur­ried escape, Par­vana acci­den­tal­ly col­lides with a woman car­ry­ing a child, who turns out to be Mrs. Weera, a fam­i­ly friend. Despite Parvana’s ini­tial inten­tion to rush home, Mrs. Weera insists on accom­pa­ny­ing her, sens­ing that her moth­er might be in need of sup­port. Par­vana, though reluc­tant, agrees, her con­cern for her moth­er grow­ing as she notices the toll the past few days have tak­en on her. The pres­ence of Mrs. Weera, a famil­iar and com­fort­ing fig­ure, brings a sense of sta­bil­i­ty to Parvana’s chaot­ic jour­ney. They make their way home togeth­er, Par­vana hop­ing that her moth­er will find some relief from the con­stant wor­ry and strain they have been under since their father’s arrest. Mrs. Weera’s calm demeanor helps to soothe Parvana’s anx­i­ety, offer­ing a sense of sol­i­dar­i­ty in the midst of such uncer­tain times.

When they arrive home, Noo­ria imme­di­ate­ly crit­i­cizes Par­vana for not buy­ing enough gro­ceries, high­light­ing the ten­sion and stress with­in the fam­i­ly. Mrs. Weera steps in, explain­ing the sit­u­a­tion and calm­ing Noo­ria by reas­sur­ing her that Par­vana had been chased out of the mar­ket. As she takes charge of the sit­u­a­tion, Mrs. Weera begins to assess the dire state of the family’s liv­ing con­di­tions. The lack of basic neces­si­ties such as water, com­bined with the state of Parvana’s mother’s health, under­scores the grow­ing des­per­a­tion the fam­i­ly faces with­out their father. Mrs. Weera encour­ages Par­vana to fetch water, treat­ing the task as a team effort, a small but vital step to regain some con­trol over their cir­cum­stances.

Par­vana duti­ful­ly makes mul­ti­ple trips to fetch water, despite her exhaus­tion, dri­ven by the knowl­edge that her fam­i­ly depends on her. How­ev­er, when she reach­es for unboiled water out of thirst, Noo­ria stern­ly inter­venes, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of drink­ing only the boiled water for safe­ty. After­ward, Mrs. Weera pre­pares boiled water for Par­vana and reas­sures her moth­er, attempt­ing to bring some order to the chaos around them. This small act of kind­ness and care pro­vides a brief moment of com­fort amid the over­whelm­ing hard­ship they are expe­ri­enc­ing. The chap­ter con­cludes with the fam­i­ly qui­et­ly talk­ing togeth­er, find­ing solace in each other’s pres­ence despite the grim cir­cum­stances. Par­vana, though weary, is left with a glim­mer of hope, know­ing that her family’s bond remains unbro­ken even in the face of adver­si­ty.