Debunking The Western Myth About The Veil In Yasmina Khadra’s The Swallows Of Kabul

Abstract

The novels of the Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra, who is the most famous Arab writer in the world, are concerned with universal and contemporary issues like Islamic fundamentalism and the debate between Islam and the West. This article is a critical reading of Khadra’s novel The Swallows of Kabul, which is set in Kabul under the reign of Taliban. The novel debunks the Western myth which associates Islam with terror and violence. The latter, as the novel vindicates, results from the misinterpretation of Islam by Taliban which used this religion to reinforce patriarchal ideologies and oppress women. In addition to his vehement criticism of Taliban’s Islamic fundamentalism, Khadra tries to deconstruct the Western myth which demonizes the burqua and considers it as a means of oppression, disempowerment, marginalization, and objectification. Though Taliban confirms the Western stereotype of the burqa as an instrument of patriarchal oppression, Khadra’s novel evinces the failure of Taliban to silence women and disempower them through imposing the burqa. The latter is used by Afghan women as a tool of empowerment, protest, and self-assertion.