Quote 1
[Soraya:] "I heard you write."
How did she know? I wondered if her father had told her, maybe she had asked him. I immediately dismissed both scenarios as absurd. Fathers and sons could talk freely about women. But no Afghan girl – no decent and mohtaram Afghan girl, at least – queried her father about a young man. And no father, especially a Pashtun with nang and namoos, would discuss a mojarad with his daughter, 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. (12.40-41)
OK, so you probably need some translations here. Mohtaram means "respected." A mojarad is a single man. Nang and namoos mean "honor" and "pride," respectively. And, though you can probably figure this one out, a khastegar is a suitor.
Now we can get down to business. The Kite Runner is obsessed with the practice of one's principles. We think you can divide the book's principles into two categories: ethical principles and traditional principles. "You shouldn't betray your best friend (and half-brother)" is an ethical principle. "Afghan girls shouldn't talk with their fathers about datable single men" would be a traditional principle. We can all agree with the ethical principles in the book, but the traditional principles espoused by characters like Baba and the General sometimes seem slightly sexist or racist. Part of Amir's difficulty in the book is that he has to navigate between ethical principles and traditional principles. These two come into conflict more than you might think. Consider, for example, the complexities of ethnicity in the book. An ethical principle might be to love your half-brother. A traditional principle might be – according to Assef and the General and lots of Pashtuns – to treat Hazaras as inferiors. It's got to be quite confusing for Amir at times.
Quote 2
[Soraya:] "Their sons go out to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no one says a goddamn thing. Oh, they're just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang and namoos, and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life." (13.86)
Soraya slams Afghan culture for its double-standard with men and women. Men can go out to the club and have sex; women can't even have sex with a long-term boyfriend. We would also like to point out that Baba has a double-standard. He criticizes Amir for not standing up to the neighborhood boys. Well, how did Hassan get into this world? Baba had an affair with Ali's wife. That doesn't really count as standing up for your friend.
Quote 3
"I didn't tell you," Soraya said, dabbing at her eyes, "but my father showed up with a gun that night. He told...him...that he had two bullets in the chamber, one for him and one for himself if I didn't come home. I was screaming, calling my father all kinds of names, saying he couldn't keep me locked up forever, that I wished he were dead." Fresh tears squeezed out between her lids. "I actually said that to him, that I wished he were dead." (13.88)
Wow. General Taheri shows up one night to his daughter's apartment because she's been living with an Afghan man. We guess it's obvious from this passage how important honor is to General Taheri. He's willing to kill both himself and Soraya's boyfriend to save not only her honor but his own.