Teaching: General Issues

1. Using the ideas about plot and structure in the website, students might want to plot their own memoirs. How would they plot the story of their childhood, for example? How about plotting their education?
2. Ansary asserts that “in 1948, when I was born, most of Afghanistan might have been living in Neolithic times. . . . People lived pretty much as they had eight thousand years ago.” Yet, there is a lot in his description that shows this to be false. Consider such themes as the history of Islam, class within village and compound, changing gender relations, and political conflict as you look for dynamics of change in this world that at first appears static.
3. Ansary does not explicitly recognize the gender issues embedded in the division between public and private realms, but you and your class might want to consider them. The Iranian film The White Balloon (Farsi with English subtitles) offers a different perspective on these matters.
4. It is clear from Ansary’s brief mentions of the kinar-nisheen that there were class differences within the family compounds of Kabul in the 1950s and 60s. Students might want to investigate this
5. A constant theme throughout the book is the discrepancy between "the lost world" where Islam is an integral part of everyday life and the world of Islamic militants who Ansary feels want to revert to 7th century way of life. This can raise interesting discussions about religion and ideology. How are ideas of tradition used for modern purposes? Many Americans find the idea of the code of sharia oppressive. Differences between legal codes and systematic practices that are not law and appear invisible can be explored. Can a practice that seems invisible (like Islam in the lost world) be as oppressive as one that is enforced by law (like the code of sharia under the Taliban)?