Q4 Outside Reading Week 5 Post A

"... not unless the fellow in question was a khastegar, a suitor, who had done the honorable thing and sent his father to knock on the door"(147).

In Afghan tradition, marriage, is quite different than for Americans. Everything has to be done based on tradition, honor, and family name. A boy who comes from a decent family will have a better chance at getting the girl of his dreams than one without a good name. For Amir, his good fortune of having a well-known father gave him a shot at happiness with Soraya, the daughter of an Afghan general. "That's why when his father--God give him peace--came khastegari, I didn't hesistate. And believe me, his father wouldn't have agreed to ask for your hand if he didn't know whose descendant you were. Blood is a powerful thing [...] Now if you were American, it wouldn't matter. People here marry for love"(188). They care about family name and ancestory. Marrying for love isn't always possible for people like Amir, but he was lucky enough to find it in the form of Soraya who came from a good family too.
There are also many traditions one has to go through. The first of which being the father of the son must go to the father of the daughter to ask for her hand in marriage. The two lovers cannot just date or come together on their own terms. There are also ceremonies that the couple must go through and they are not allowed in public alone together before they are married. To me, it seems like a complex string of events, but tradition is tradition and that was the way Amir was raised. It is different here. As General Sahib points out, people in Ameirca marry for love. I'm glad to be living in a country that grants you such freedoms.