43 pages • 1 hour read
Yasmina KhadraThe Swallows of Kabul
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Yasmina Khadra
Mohammed Moulessehoul, publishing under the pen name “Yasmina Khadra,” is an Algerian author who writes in French. Moulessehoul used a feminine pen name to avoid military censorship, as any written publications had to be submitted to a censorship board. Though Moulessehoul initially published abroad to avoid censorship, he took on his wife’s name and signature to publish in his own country of Algeria. This process has led to some confusion regarding Yasmina Khadra’s gender, with some critics praising the feminine perspective of his works without realizing that a man wrote the text. The struggles of different genders under Taliban rule is a fundamental theme in The Swallows of Kabul, mixing the perspectives of both masculine and feminine characters in the text to give a view of life under the Taliban.
Moulessehoul has written over 30 published works and received several awards, including the Henri Gal Literature Grand Prize. Moulessehoul left the military in 2000 and settled in France with his family, serving as the director of the Algerian Cultural Center from 2007-2014 in Paris. Moulessehoul’s experiences in the military and on both sides of a colonial divide between Algeria and France inform his writing on other Middle Eastern countries, such as Afghanistan. Moulessehoul was a commander of special forces in Algeria. He fought against Islamic fundamentalists at the Moroccan border, leading to his struggles with mental health. He draws on these experiences in The Swallows of Kabul.
Historical Context: The Taliban Occupation of Kabul
The Soviet–Afghan War took place between 1979 and 1989. It consisted of fighting between the Soviet military—allied with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan—and the mujahideen, or guerilla fighters, allied with the United States and Pakistan. This conflict is defined as a proxy war; it allowed conflict between the Soviet Union and United States without open declaration of war between the two powers. The war took place largely in the countryside and ended with about three million Afghan deaths. The Soviet–Afghan War is referenced in The Swallows of Kabul as a foundational event in the lives of many characters, as it created the power vacuum that allowed for the formation of fundamentalist groups and the continued use of Afghanistan as a site of intense foreign interference.
After the Soviet–Afghan War, the Afghan Civil War took place between 1992 and 1996, during which the Taliban, a Pashtun nationalist group, grew to dominance. In 1996, the Taliban took control of Kabul, cementing their control over the majority of Afghanistan. They instituted a rigid enforcement of Sharia law, which involved violent persecution and discrimination of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as a severe reduction in rights for women. In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban. The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, following the United States’ withdrawal from the country. The Swallows of Kabul is firmly rooted between these conflicts, showing the daily dilemmas of Afghan people living under Taliban rule while also highlighting the nature of foreign intervention as a root cause for the conflict.
