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When Amir meets Soraya, she is soft-spoken, beautiful, respectful, steady, and intelligent. At first glance, she perfectly embodies the most important qualities assigned to the female sex by Afghan culture. However, as Amir’s interest in her grows, so does the reader’s understanding of her inner life. We learn that while she appears to be the “perfect” Afghan woman, she has a storied past and is, in her heart, much more like her father: strong-willed, fiery, opinionated, and discontent with the way things are. Her discontent is expressed only in front of the few people among whom it is safe to do so– her mother, and later, Amir. This frustration is most often in relation to how she is treated as a woman in her culture, and the unfair double standards she must continue to contend with, even after becoming a married woman.
Soraya is tough, but a nurturer at heart, and she is the person from whom Amir first experiences a tender and gentle love. Throughout the novel, she is a consistent representation of hope. She is Amir’s hope for a happy future and a family. She is Baba’s hope that Amir will be okay. Later, she is Amir’s hope that he will be able to endure through the horrors and dangers that he encounters in Kabul, and bring Sohrab home to her, giving Soraya the child she always wanted, and the chance to be the mother she deserves to be.
