The Swallows of Kabul

The Swallows of Kabul is Yasmina Khadra’s 2002 novel detailing the gradual destruction of the lives and livelihoods of two sets of characters living under the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan. The novel was originally written and published in French. The English-language version was published in 2005. Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of Algerian author Mohammed Moulessehoul. Moulessehoul, who previously served as an officer in the Algerian army, used his wife’s name for his writing to avoid military censorship.

The novel opens on Atiq Shaukat, a jailer in Afghanistan. His wife, Musarrat, is very ill and has made him late for work in attending to her. He is numb, losing his sense of compassion and empathy under the burden of his work and his life at home.

Khadra also introduces the reader to Mohsen Ramat, who quietly opposes the Taliban regime. He witnesses an adulteress being executed via stoning in the public marketplace. Atiq has escorted her to the site of execution. Mohsen, although he thinks the stoning is wrong, conforms to social pressure and picks up a rock. He hits the woman in the head, killing her.



Later, Atiq meets up with a childhood friend, Mirza Shah. During the war, years ago, Mirza was one of the first Afghani soldiers to desert his post and join the Mujahideen. Now he is troubled and addicted to cocaine. Atiq confides his problems to Mirza, who tells him that he should divorce his wife rather than try to care for her. He says it is God’s will that she die, and that women have no feelings anyway. Atiq, however, knows that his wife once saved his life, and that he owes her.

Mohsen goes home to his wife Zunaira. She was once a schoolteacher, but is no longer permitted to work. She stays at home, covering their broken windows with a blanket in case a man walks by. It would be considered offensive for him to catch a glimpse of her through the window.

Atiq is stationed to a sanctuary, making sure that passersby attend the services within. During prayer, Atiq finds himself thinking angry thoughts about the poor and the infirm. Rather than go home, he stops to listen to the stories of war veterans. When Atiq finally returns home, he finds Musarrat has gotten out of bed, cleaned the house, and cooked a meal for him. But they end up arguing, and he leaves the house angry. He heads back to the jail to spend the night there.



Mohsen asks his wife to go on a walk with him, but Zunaira has reservations. She’s afraid of stepping out into the streets. She will have to cover herself completely with a burqa, and the two will not be able to hold hands or even talk to each other. But when she sees how unhappy Mohsen is, she agrees to go.

The next day, Atiq realizes that he has started to become needlessly cruel to other people. He debates with himself until another man, Mirza, yells out that Atiq is talking to himself and must be losing his mind. Furious, Atiq runs out of the jail and knocks over Mohsen and Zunaira on their walk.

Mohsen and Zunaira are startled and begin to laugh. A guard overhears them and hits Mohsen for the infraction. When Zunaira protests, she too is beaten. Other guards ask the couple where they are walking to. Mohsen lies and says they are on their way to Zunaira’s parents’ house. The guards tell Mohsen he must attend Mullah Bashir’s sermon, and Zunaira will wait for him. Mohsen listens to Mullah Bashir rail against the evils of the Western world. Outside, Zunaira is forced to sit under the hot sun, where she begins to weep over her lack of freedom.



Atiq withdraws into himself, turning down an invitation to hang out with Qassim, an old friend from the war. At home, Musarrat’s condition is worse. Her hair has begun falling out.

Mohsen and Zunaira’s relationship becomes strained. She refuses to remove her veil,. She has begun to see her own husband as an enemy, as complicit with the Taliban. She tells him she doesn’t want to see him, and he protests that she is his reason for living. He tries to take her veil off by force, but she scratches him in self-defense. In response, Mohsen hits her with a chair. He immediately regrets this and tries to tell her he didn’t mean to, but she shoves him away—and he falls out of the building, the tallest tower in Kabul. He lands in the street and is run over by Qassim’s passing truck.

Zunaira is sent to prison for killing her husband, and Atiq becomes her jailer. She is to be executed later that week at a Taliban rally. In jail, Zunaira choses to remove her burqa at last: she takes off all her clothing and exposes her naked body to Atiq. He is entranced by her beauty and speaks of it to Musarrat. Ironically, his wife is happy to hear this: she is glad that he has finally expressed an emotion to her after seeming shut off from his feelings for so long.



Atiq, infatuated with Zunaira, pleads her case to Qassim. Qassim is unmoved, saying Zunaira must be using feminine wiles on him. Besides, he says, she is just a woman. Atiq is steadfast and returns to unlock Zunaira’s cell, telling her to escape. She refuses, explaining that she has nowhere to go and is already dead inside.

Atiq doesn’t know what to do. His wife tells him to escape with Zunaira because he is in love. Still unsure, Atiq prays for guidance and falls asleep. Musarrat arrives at the jail and wakens him. She tells him she will take Zunaira’s place because she is dying anyway. Thanks to the burqas, they are easily able to make the switch. Atiq has Zunaira, posing as Musarrat, stay behind at the jail while the executions take place.

Musarrat is killed in Zunaira’s place, but when Atiq returns to the jail, he cannot find Zunaira. Distraught, he begins to approach women in the streets and tear off their veils, searching for her face. Fellow men see the outrage he is committing and start to beat him. His head cracks open and he dies, still trying to look for Zunaira.



The Swallows of Kabul was well-received by critics, with one reviewer calling the book “a scathing indictment of a world turned to stone” under the fundamentalist Taliban regime. The book was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2006.