Chapter 1: The Swallows of Kabul

The first chapter begins with describing the setting; sand, whirling winds, much like a battle field in the Afghan countryside. It introduces a character by the name of Atiq Shaukat. He is angry because he is late to a meeting, being discouraged because he assumes that the executioner has probably beent here for at elast ten minutes. When he finally arrives, he unlocks a jail cell. Himself and two militiawomen rush in to the cell. There is a veiled woman jsut finishing her prayers. After rising to her feet, Atiq and the two women bind her tightly, tieing her legs and arms. The two militiawomen take her and put her into a truck and sit beside here. A new character is introduced, Mohsen Ramat. He is in a town square where they have announced that a prostitute is going to be stoned to death. Mohsen is reluctant to join the crowd, but does so anyway. He explains that he has been to many lynchings, but is still uncomfortable with the whole situation. It then continues to describe her stoning. Mohsen participates in it.

I found it hard to get into the book at first. In the first paragraph I thought the author used way too many adjectives and I thought, "wow, this is going to get annoying!" But as I continued, either the number of adjectives decreased or i just didn't notice them as much. It was very shocking to me to learn that they had public executions; especially ones where they stone people to death. I was aware that their government was, i guess you could say, NUTS!, but not to that extent.