water upstairs and Mrs. Weera empties the buckets. She comes back to the water tap and she hauls the water to fill the buckets. She remains hauling the
water until her arms get ache and her feet bleed. She keeps fetching the water and bringing the full buckets of water upstairs until the water is enough to use
by all of her family’s members. She does not care about her pain and her
tiresome. She realizes that her family needs the water, so she works so hard to fulfil her family’s need of water.
Parvana shows her struggle again through fetching the water. As a female child, she is able to think about the need of her family. She is able to prioritize
her family need over her pain. She fights with the threat of being outside as a girl. After all, she manages to help her family in getting the water for their
daily needs.
2. Optimizing Her Attempts to Save Her Family
Taliban group has been the threat for all people. Besides creating restriction to women to go outside and exercise their rights, Taliban people also
make other rules that harm the men who live under their control. All people including women and men face the danger of being put in jail and punished
harshly once the Taliban knows that there is someone who does not obey their rule. It includes the prohibition of having Western ideas. Parvana’s father has
gone for study in England. Taliban group regard his knowledge that is gained there is a form of betrayal of their belief. Therefore, they kidnap him and put
him into jail Ellis, 2000: 31.
Parvana does some efforts to save her father from the Taliban. She and her mother attempt to search for him and release him from the prison.
“I’m here for my father” she called out. Her mother looked down at her through the screen over her eyes. She reached down and
took Parvana’s hand. “I’m here for my husband” she called again.
Over and over, Parvana and her mother kept yelling out. More and more men came to stare at them their mission.
“Be quiet” ordered one of the guards. “You should not be here Go from this place Go back to your home” One of the soldiers snatched the photo
of Parvana’s father and tore it into pieces. Another started hitting her mother with a stick.
“Release my husband” her mother kept saying. Another soldier joined in the beating. He hit Parvana, too.
Although he did not hit her very hard, Parvana fell to the ground, her body covering the pieces of her father’s photograph. In a flash, she tucked the
pieces out of sight, under her chador. Ellis, 2000: 41-42
After they walk so far from their house to the prison, they finally come to the prison. Even though she is still small and young, Parvana gathers her
courage and bravery to yell to the Taliban soldiers to release her father. Yet, the Taliban soldiers do not welcome them warmly. Instead, they order Parvana
and her mother to go home because women are not supposed to go outside. The Taliban soldiers totally ignore their demand to release her father by tearing his
photo in front of them. Furthermore, Parvana and her mother are also beaten by those soldiers.
It shows how Parvana really struggles to save her father. She has to walk for miles to get to the prison. Her legs are painful and as a little girl, she feels
very frightened to meet the Taliban soldiers Ellis, 2000: 40. She even has to experience the pain because of the Taliban’s beating on her. She struggles to
save her father mentally and physically. Mentally, she fights against her feeling of fear to meet the Taliban soldiers. Children who have weak mental condition
will not have enough courage to go further to meet the soldiers. Yet, Parvana is brave enough to finally meet them. Physically, she has to bear double pain
because of walking and being beaten by those soldiers. As a child, she is strong enough to endure the pain in order to achieve her goal in rescuing her father.
Her attempt to save her father is not only by going to the prison but also by insisting to wait for her father to come back even though it means that she has
to be alone in Kabul. It is represented by the datum below: “We can’t leave Kabul” Parvana exclaimed. “What about Father? What
will happen if he gets out of prison and we’re not here? He won’t know where to look for us”
“I’ll be here,” Mrs. Weera said. “I can tell your father where you are and look after him until you get back.”
“I’m not sending Nooria off to Mazar all by herself,” Mother said. “And since you are a child, you will come with us.”
“I’m not going,” Parvana insisted. She even stamped her feet. “You will do as you’re told,” Mother said. “All this running around wild in
the streets has made you think you’re above yourself.” “I’m not going to Mazar” Parvana repeated, stamping her feet again.
Ellis, 2000: 136-137
Nooria will get married in Mazar. She cannot bear living in Kabul with a lot of restriction and limitation to women. Hence, she decides to get married
with someone in Mazar to free herself from those problems Ellis, 2000: 136. Her mother does not allow her to go there by herself so she will accompany her
with all the members of the family. Yet, Parvana refuses to go with them. She wants to wait for her father. She believes that her father is still alive. She insists
to keep staying in Kabul with all the existing consequences. Fortunately, Mrs. Weera wants to live with her.
Although Parvana does not do tangible action in saving her father, her bravery to stay in Kabul without her family is a great attempt to make sure that
her father survives there. Parvana does not want to make her father feels worry when he comes back to their house and finds no one. If it happens, he will
search for them in any place in Kabul and it will endanger him because anytime the Taliban soldiers can chase him again. At least, when Parvana is in
the house, she is able to tell her father where their family is now and to let him know that all of them are in a good condition. At least, her father is comforted
by seeing one of his family members is fine. Although Parvana is really aware that living without a family is something hard for everyone including small
female child like herself, she still wants to stay in Kabul with all strict regulations of the Taliban to women by her own capability. She realizes that
she has no one to share something except Mrs. Weera who is not really close to her. As a little child, she has to fight against the feeling of missing her family.
Surely, it is not an easy matter for her but she tries to bear it in order to wait for her father.
Parvana does not only optimize her attempts to save her father, she also tries to save the rest of her family:
A lot of people have fled Mazar,” he said. “They are staying in refugee camps outside the city”
“Is that where Mother is?” “It’s possible. We won’t know unless we go to the camps and look.”
“How can we do that? Are you well enough to travel?” “I will never be well enough,” Father said, “but we should go anyway.”
“When do we leave?” Parvana asked. Ellis, 2000: 159
After her family leaves Kabul to Mazar, Parvana meets a woman whose name is Homa. She comes from Mazar. She tells Parvana and Mrs. Weera that
Taliban group has attacked the city. Mazar is the city where her mother, Nooria, Maryam and Ali are there Ellis, 2000: 150-151. After her father
comes back to home, he tells Parvana that a lot of people have escaped from Mazar to be the refugee in the camps nearby the city. Parvana really worries
about her family. She asks her father whether her mother and her family are in the camps. Her father says that they will not know if they do not go directly to
the camps. Parvana then initiates to ask her father to go there in order to save her family. Parvana is so enthusiastic, so she directly asks her father when they
will leave Kabul to Mazar to meet her family. Parvana’s enthusiasm shows how strong her willingness to save her family
is. It also signifies her bravery to accept all the risk when she goes to Mazar. In the journey, it is possible for them to meet with the Taliban soldiers who
restrict women to go out. She needs to be careful in her disguise as a boy because once they knows she is a girl, she can be punished. Therefore, going to
Mazar does not only need physical struggle but also need mental struggles like bravery and courage.
3. Encouraging Her Family
