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Assef Rapes Hassan
When running a kite Hassan runs into Assef who, with the help of his minions holds him down and Amir, who finds Hassan after looking a bit and hears, "Assef's quick rhythmic grunts"(77). -
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Afghanistan and the US
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The Soviet Union Invades to Help Babrak Karmal
The fighting started in Afghanistan when "Soviet troops parachuted into Kabul on Dec. 27, 1979, to assist Babrak Karmal, who had become president in a coup within the Afghan Communist leadership" (NYT). -
Baba Rants About How The US isn't doing Much to Stop The Events of Afghanistan
While still in Kabul, Baba hears the US's announcement and says "'Brezhnez is massacring Afghans and all that peanut eater can say is I won't come swim in your pool'"(126). -
Baba and Amir Escape Afghanistan
After a treacherous journey through horrid conditions, Baba and Amir make it to America with "Baba lov[ing] the idea of America"(125) -
Amir and Baba Start Their Escape From Afghanistan
As they travel Amir wishes there were not "grim-faced Russian soldiers patrolling the sidewalks, no tanks rolling up and down the streets of [his] city, their turrets swiveling like accusing fingers, no rubble, no curfews, [and] no Russian Army Personnel Carriers weaving through Bazaars"(113) -
Baba Buys A 1984 Election Bumper Sticker
While at the Flea Market Baba buys a bumper sticker that supports "REAGAN/BUSH FOR '84"(138). -
Residents of Kabul Flee
When Rahim Khan tells his story he explains why he sought Hassan by saying most people he knew "had either been killed or had escaped the country to Pakistan or Iran"(203). -
Baba Dies
A month after Amir gets married to Soraya when they put him to bed he declines his pain medication because he says there isn't pain tonight and "Baba never woke up"(173) -
The Soviets leave Afghanistan
After ten years of battle, "[e]ventually, after peace talks moderated by the United Nations, the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989, in what was in effect a unilateral withdrawal" (NYT). -
Amir Recognizes War That Should Have Ended In Afghanistan
Amir's novel is released in the summer of 1989, and he acknowledges that "the Shorawi completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.[It should have been the end but i]nstead, the war raged on, this time between Afghans, the Mujahedin, against the Soviet puppet government of Najibullah, and Afghan refugees kept flocking to Pakistan" (184). -
The Soviet Air Force is forced out of the air
When the United States got involved in Afghanistan affairs in "1986, the Soviet Air Force was also rendered largely useless by advanced Stinger antiaircraft missiles supplied by the United States to the rebels" (NYT). -
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Rahim Khan Tells of Events in Kabul
While meeting with Amir Rahim Khan says "when the Northern Alliance took over Kabul between 1992 and 1996, different factions claimed different parts of Kabul"(199). -
Afghanistan Divisions Fighting for Power
When the Soviet Union finally left the country it left it in shambles so "Afghanistan descended into vicious internecine strife; by the summer of 1994, power was anarchically divided among competing warlords and individual fiefdoms" (NYT). -
The Taliban Take Control
With the help of Pakistan, a brutal group named "the Taliban by 1996 had taken control of Afghanistan, imposing strict enforcement of fundamentalist Islamic law, banning movies and music and forcing women out of schools and into all-enveloping burqa clothing" (NYT). -
Osama Bin Laden Arrives at Afghanistan
Afghanistan was a safe haven for the Al Queda so it is to be expected that "[t]he Taliban also provided a haven for Mr. bin Laden, who arrived by chartered jet at Jalalabad Airport in May 1996" (NYT). -
Hazara Massacre 1998
When Amir confronts Assef, Assef mentions "the Hazara massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif [it] happened just after the Taliban took over Mazar, one of the last cities to fall"(277) -
Amir goes to Afghanistan to make up for his sins
After a call from Rahim Khan where he says that there is a "way to be good again"(2) Amir goes to Afghanistan to meet him. -
Amir finds out Hassan was his brother
When in Afghanistan, Amir talks to Rahim Khan who tells him that "'Ali was sterile'"(222) and that Baba bore Sanaubar a child, and that child was Hassan. -
Amir can Adopt Sohrab
Amir finds out that he doesn't have to put Sohrab back in an orphanage and they can "'get Sohrab a humanitarian visa'"(343) and adopt him in the US. -
Hamid Karzai Leads Afghanistan After Taliban Retreat
Hamid Karzai supported this relative the former king of Afghanistan and "[h]e took office as interim president in June 2002, saying he hoped to secure peace for Afghanistan and win the country much-needed international aid" (NYT). -
Hamid Karzai Becomes President
After two years "Mr. Karzai was elected to a five-year term as president in 2004" (NYT). -
General Petraeus Takes command at the US Central Command
After doing remarkably in Iraq General Petraeus "had taken charge of United States Central Command in October 2008" (NYT). -
Obama Announces Plan To Help Afghanistan
After the Taliban made a comeback "[i]n a speech delivered Dec. 1, 2009, at West Point, Mr. Obama announced his plan to deploy 30,000 additional troops [and, he] vowed to start bringing American forces home from Afghanistan in the middle of 2011" (NYT). -
Barack Obama Pushes Promised Deadline
After 3 years of war, "the Obama administration changed its tone to increasingly emphasize the idea that the United States will have forces in the country until at least the end of 2014" (NYT).