Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how Essay

Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how the character faces oppression and overcomes it to become - Essay Example The punishment meted out for going against these rules was unthinkable. Such women, who faltered, were arrested, stoned or beaten to death in public. Kamila Siddiqi, an average Afghan woman, confronts life with great hope and determination as she sets out to carve out a successful business in order to support her family, and in doing so, she successfully overcomes brutal oppression at the hands of the Talibans. ‘The Dressmaker of Khair Khana’ by Gayle Lemmon, gives us a bird’s eye view of Afghanistan that is quite different from what we know of it so far. According to archaeological evidence, Alexander the Great had defeated the Achaemenian Dynasty between 330 – 327 B.C. during the Pre-Islamic Period and, thus, ushered in an era of Greek culture. However, by 637 B.C. the Arab Muslims started conquering the tribes in Afghanistan in a long drawn out process and introduced them to the Islam religion. By the 10th century, the Arab Abbasid Dynasty and the Samani ds, who were the successors of the aforementioned dynasty in Central Asia, were torn down. Therefore, the Ghaznavid Dynasty, which was the offshoot of the Samanids, was established and became the first major Islamic dynasty to rule Afghanistan. Once again, Genghis Khan who was the leader of the Mongol forces, defeated them in Central Asia in 1220, and left Afghanistan fragmented, till Timur succeeded and took over the country during the 1380’s. The Mongol Empire that was already there was further expanded by Timur during his rule (Nations Online Project, n.p.). Till the early 16th century, the descendants of Timur ruled Afghanistan. In 1919, after the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi, that brought to a close the Third Anglo- Afghan War, Afghanistan got its independence and became an independent country. However, the Guerrilla Wars that occurred between 1979 and 1989, killed thousands of people, devastated the land and left about 5 to 6 million homeless. Once again in 1992, a Civil War broke out because the government could not settle their differences with the Mujahideen and this further served to drag down the economy and make it even worse. This resulted in a struggle between the various armed groups and finally, one of the Islamic fundamentalist groups, the Taliban emerged victorious and took control of the country in 1996 and it was the Taliban that gave permission to the Al Qaeda, an Arab terrorist Organization to make use of Afghanistan as their base. The Taliban made use of an extremist interpretation of Islam to suppress and control the country and hence terrorist activities were rampant. The Taliban ruled with an iron fist and the people were not free to do as they wished. Especially for women, the depth of female deprivation and torture knew no bounds because the Talibans treated women even worse than animals. Their rules put endless restriction on women and the foremost of them was the ban on women working outside the house. Women were als o not allowed to carry out outside the home activities without a male chaperon. They were not allowed education in any school or university and were forced to wear a burqa that covered them from head to toe. They were banned from dealing with male shopkeepers and were not to be treated by male doctors. Women were not allowed to use cosmetics or paint their nails. Women found going against the Taliban rules, were stoned, whipped and beaten in public. Sometimes they were shot in public at point blank range. In such a dangerous