to Soraya, and asks Amir not to embarrass him by violating their customs. One day, when Amir oversteps his bounds and gives Soraya a story to read, her father throws it in the trash to teach Amir that he cannot disrespect Soraya or her family by circumventing their customs.

Amir also recognizes the wide gender gap at play in their society. "Poison tongues would flap" for them, but Soraya "would bear the brunt of that poison..." Amir understands "the Afghan double standard that favored my gender (page 123)."

All he risks by speaking with her outside of traditional constraints is rejection and a bruised ego, but "bruises healed. Reputations did not." Her already damaged reputation would be smeared further. Amir

cringed a little at the position of power I'd been granted, and all because I had won at the genetic lottery that had determined my sex (page 125).

Also, we learn that,

No father, especially a Pashtun ... would discuss a mojarad with his daughter, not unless the fellow in question was ...a suitor, who had done the honorable thing and sent his father to knock on the door (page 123).

Baba understands how a smear to Soraya's reputation and "lethal idle talk" could further damage any slim prospects she retains of marrying well.

Afghan men, especially those from reputable families, were fickle creatures. A whisper here, an insinuation there, and they fled like startled birds (page 124).

Finally, when Baba is released from the hospital, Amir asks him to go and "ask General Taheri for his daughter's hand (page 138)." He wants to adhere to their tradition. Presumably, courtship customs in Canada are more modern, so young people do not have to go through their parents and double standards based on gender probably are not as damning as in Afghan society.

The education gap between Amir, who can read and write, and Hassan, who is a poor Hazara and uneducated and illiterate, reveals behaviors associated with the culture’s philosophy about education. That poorer people are not educated is standard, and Afghan educators appear to disdain Hazaras. One of Amir’s teachers even sneers about them:

“He… snickered…"That's the one thing Shi'a people do well," he said, picking up his papers, "passing themselves as martyrs." He wrinkled his nose when he said the word Shi'a, like it was some kind of disease (page 7).”

Just as Hassan is uneducated, Soraya’s servant Ziba was also uneducated. Soraya discovers her passion for teaching when she instructs Ziba and is thrilled when Ziba learns to read. She feels a sense of pride both in Ziba's learning and in how she has helped her, telling Amir that

"She started calling me …Teacher Soraya…I know it sounds childish, but the first time Ziba wrote her own letter, I knew there was nothing else I'd ever want to be but a teacher. I was so proud of her and I felt I'd done something really worthwhile, you know? (page 127)"

Amir compares Soraya’s story to his own treatment of Hassan, when he mocked Hassan by using big words that he felt sure Hassan would not understand and belittling him when reading stories together when they were boys. Ironically, Hassan often understood intuitively the meanings or flaws in Amir’s stories, despite his lack of formal education.

Years later, when Hassan is an adult, he takes great pride in having learned to read despite Afghan customs against teaching Hazaras. “He had befriended an old Farsi teacher in Bamiyan who had taught him to read and write (page 177).” Hassan also is proud that he and Rahim Khan “have taught [Sohrab] to read and write... (page 184).”

By comparison, everyone in Canada, where literacy rates are among the world's highest, is expected to pursue an education. Canada celebrates International Literacy Day and stresses the importance of reading. Literacy rates in Afghanistan are only at 32%, and there is a wide gender gap.