Sports are a major part of the lives of men. The popular sports include hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and wrestling. These are very popular in the towns all over Afghanistan. School teams often play these games. In all sports they play to win and they feel defeated if they lose. A successful athlete is extremely popular with the town’s people.
Between tribes many of the traditional games are still played. Some national favorites are played on special occasions. The major one is Boz Kashi or goat wrestling. This game is extremely dangerous. A goat or calf is beheaded and placed in a ditch. It is then taken by men on horseback from different teams. Throughout the game many players are injured and some can be crushed to death by the horse (Wilber 129). In the novel The Kite Runner, Amir and Baba watch a game of Boz Kashi. Amir cries all the way home from the game because someone got hurt and Baba is disappointed in him. Amir has a lack of interest in sports and also cried, which is not a very manly thing to do (Hosseini 20-21).
Ghosai is a wrestling game that can be played by any amount of players. The general total for this is twenty on two different teams. The Ghosai is the player who attempts to reach the goal, hopping on one leg. The players on the team try to protect him from attacks by the other team. This is to prevent them from reaching the goal, with the other players also hopping on one leg (Wilber 129).
Kite running also known as kite fighting, is a national pastime in Afghanistan, “Afghans have elevated kite flying or gudiparan bazi to an art form, and one of its chief attractions is kite fighting” (www.referl.org). The Taliban banned such sports or hobbies because it was considered non- Islamic. Kite running involves two people; one called the charka gir holds the spool and the wire string. The gudiparan baz is the kite flyer, who controls the movement of the kite, “During the fight or jang the kites fly close to one another, often to great heights.
The object is to cut the wire of your opponent’s kite and set it free” (www.referl.org). The Azadi Rawast is the person who lost the fight. Kite running is extremely dangerous. People were climbing up on roofs where they can get a better view of the action. Many children got hurt or lost their lives because of this. In the novel The Kite Runner Amir and Hassan fly a kite in the kite fighting tournament. Amir goes on to win the tournament and get the well- deserved blue kite (Hosseini 63- 67).
Works cited
1.) Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner Riverhead Books; New York, 2003
2.) Wilber, Donald Afghanistan HRAF PRESS; New Haven, June 8, 1965
3.) <http://www.Afghansportsfederation.org>
4.) <http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1101400.html>
5.) <http://afghana.com/Entertainment/Gudiparanbazi.htm>
By: Samantha Marino