Political+Scene

In //Kite Runner's// exposition, King Mohammed Zahir Shah was in power in Afghanistan. However, partway into the book, on July 17, 1973, Mohammed Daoud Khan carried out a Coup, deposing Zahir Shah and setting up a republic in the region. Daoud's reign was a sort of rebellion against Zahir Shah's constitutional democracy. He returned to militaristic ways, immediately strengthening Afghanistan's army and importing modern weapons from the Soviet Union. Daoud ruled slightly more harshly than his predecessor, purging his government of everyone not in his self-established political party. In doing this he alienated all of his communist friends that helped him come to power in the region. Daoud was violently taken out of power on April 27, 1978, when a group of rebels led by Ahmad Shah staged a coup, creating the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. However, this government did not last. It soon displeased the soviets, who had a large hand in the government, and they invaded rapidly, taking Kabul within a few days. This part relates to the section in //The Kite Runner// when the Russians attack, and Amir and Baba are forced to leave Afghanistan and flee to California. Also, during this time thousands of Afghannis fled to Pakistan, trying to escape the violence and bloodshed cased by the civil war. The cause of all this strife between the different groups vying for control in the region was a factionalism between two different groups of communists. The two groups were the Khalqs and the Parcham, with the upper hand usually going to the latter. The differences between these two groups was quite minute, and often boiled down to squabbles over the exact degree of their communist beliefs. Then, while Amir was in America, leadership of Afghanistan changed hands several times until the Soviets finally withdrew from the region in 1987. Shortly after the Soviets withdrew, the factionalism of the standing government fell apart and a rebel by the name of Najibullah took over. However, he soon became disenchanted by the prospect of ruling Afghanistan, and announced his plan to resign. He then tried to flee Kabul, but was caught and killed by the Taliban who seized power shortly thereafter. This sets the stage for the last part of //The Kite Runner//, when Amir goes back to Taliban controlled Afghanistan to meet with Rahim Khan. The Taliban occupation certainly did nothing to help the lack of stability in the country, as is evident in the book. After this point, new civil wars began, and Afghanistan maintained a steady state of turmoil all the way up until the present day, where strife still runs the country.

Flag of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Picture by Wikipedia.org