So I just finished reading Kite Runner and I am in the process of finishing A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Husseini, they are amazing by the way. I suggest you read them, it really does capture/haunt you. Well both stories take place in Afghanistan during the 80's and going on through the 90's until present day I believe.
The first story mainly consists of two boys Hassan and Amir and their friendship is torn by the social classes that bind everyone to a certain standard in Afghanistan. I believe Hassan is Hazara Shi'a and Amir is Sunni. Dont quote me on that though, I dont remember. lol. Well these two social classes are the ones that are in war in the middle east. And what amazes me the most is that no one really takes notice of what is going on. Of how these social classes really affect people, and how they ultimately make us less human. If we keep trying to pick at all the differences and classify them into categories we are dehuminizing them. There is a lot of talk in the book about how there are brothers killing brothers, because of the mere fact that they are different class in Afghanistan. About how shi'a and sunni should not be fighting against each other because of their social class but should bind together as brothers of Afghanistan.
The social turmoil also has hurt women greatly, they are forced to marry at a very young age and manipulated and controlled by men. How they must shelter their face and hinder their intelligence so that the men can have full control. Progressively, more men are dying in this war and a women are left fending for themselves and their children with no knowledge of the world and rendered helpless because of society and the extremism of Islam have imprisoned women for years. Hosseini touches those points in his novels, he engrains truth in fiction. And he has made me pay attention to a crisis that should be payed more attention to.