{"id":863,"date":"2008-01-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2008\/01\/my-problem-with-the-kite-runne.html"},"modified":"2008-01-22T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T10:00:00","slug":"my-problem-with-the-kite-runne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2008\/01\/my-problem-with-the-kite-runne.html","title":{"rendered":"My Problem with “The Kite Runner”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"200px-Kite_runner.jpg\"
\nBrace yourselves. Because I\u2019m about to say something politically incorrect: I have issues with \u201cThe Kite Runner.\u201d<\/a> And the fact that no one does is further proof of how biased our culture is against the mentally ill.
\nThe summer before last my friend lent me her copy. I\u2019ve never been so pulled into a novel in all my life … The author, Khaled Hosseini succeeded at keeping me completely spellbound, unable to take pee breaks.
\nUntil I got to page 176.
\nTake out your copies and see why I’m a little irritated. There he describes his father-in-law as an Afghan that did nothing about the Taliban or asserting the rights of the Afghan people, a man who would hide out in his room for a week due to migraines, a coward who preferred to check government-issued checks than to degrade himself with unsuitable work, a petty husband who would take bites of a dish his wife prepared for him, sigh, and push it away. And right after that sentence is this one: \u201cSoraya [Amir\u2019s wife] told me he took antidepressants.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nNO! I mean, I can take the whole government-handout stuff, the disrespectful tone towards one\u2019s wife, the selfishness of someone who waits around for things to change in his country, so he can go back and be the esteemed general. BUT ANITDEPRESSANTS???
\nTell me, Hosseini, how do you really feel towards we weaklings that pop happy pills??
\nGranted, I know in your culture there is no understanding of mental illness. So challenge it! Don\u2019t give into it!
\nRight after the massacre at Virginia Tech, I remember an interview with Sang Lee, director of the Asian American Program at Princeton Theological Seminary. <\/a>He was very honest in explaining the stigma of mental illness in the Korean community, and why Seung-Hui Cho, or any Korean immigrant for that matter, wouldn\u2019t seek help for a mood disorder.
\n\u201cKorean immigrants would feel shame,\u201d he said. “There would be some reluctance and some hesitancy in admitting [a mental illness] and openly seeing a doctor.”
\nSo now we have over 30 grieving families.
\nIf you think I\u2019m overreacting, let\u2019s swap the \u201cSoraya told me he took antidepressants\u201d line with \u201cHe used a wheelchair and parked in handicapped parking spaces.\u201d
\nNow the paragraph reads something like this:<\/p>\n

He did nothing to advance the causes of Afghanistan; he kept his family on welfare because he was too proud to perform a job that was beneath him; he was nasty and rude to his wife; and he used a wheelchair and parked in handicapped parking spaces.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don\u2019t you think there might be just a few people with physical disabilities that are offended by that?
\nAnd yet when you throw in the antidepressants no one notices. BECAUSE WE ALL AGREE THESE PEOPLE ARE WEAK.
\nAnd guess what? Mental illness doesn\u2019t stay within the boundaries of the US. In case you think it\u2019s a disease for rich people, guess again. As I wrote in a prior post<\/a>, a dear Indian lady I met in Calcutta suffers tremendously.
\nI applaud your cause, Hosseini, for a freer Afghanistan, and I respect your exquisite writing style. But on the way to your dream, please be careful not to persecute. Treat the mentally ill with the same compassion as you treat those politically oppressed. Until then, I’m going to save the money that I’d spend on your flick and give it to NAMI, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brace yourselves. Because I\u2019m about to say something politically incorrect: I have issues with \u201cThe Kite Runner.\u201d And the fact that no one does is further proof of how biased our culture is against the mentally ill. The summer before last my friend lent me her copy. I\u2019ve never been so pulled into a novel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Problem with "The Kite Runner" - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2008\/01\/my-problem-with-the-kite-runne.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Problem with "The Kite Runner" - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brace yourselves. 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