Under The Persimmon Tree

The Taliban In everyday life in Afghanistan, people live in constant fear due to a group of terrorists. The novel, Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples, demonstrates the cruel truths of life in Afghanistan. The book follows two girls, Najmah and Nusrat as they are faced with tough challenges everyday that will alter their lives forever. The Taliban impact the everyday lives of people worldwide in an awfully negative way, and the book accurately proves this to be true by following Najmah and Nusrat. The harsh leaders of Taliban affect lives of people all around the world in negative ways on a non-stop daily basis. The Taliban were formed in 1994 by a man named Mullah Mohammed Omar and ruled Afghanistan from 1996
The Taliban have created a war in their homeland, which in turn causes civilians to pay for their behavior, as “many people have been killed by American bombs” (Staples 172). The Americans have no choice but to bomb these areas to protect their own citizens, and sometimes civilians might get in the way. The lives of innocent Afghans have been ruined and “you can tell by looking at them that they have no food and little clean water, all they live on is dreams of their farms, which no longer exist” (Staples 186). The Taliban are greedy and have no feelings towards people other than themselves. Rumors have been spreading around villages that “they lock the people of entire villages inside their houses and burn them down and how they slaughter men like goats” (Staples 12). These terrible acts have turned lives upside down and brought havoc upon a once peaceful place. The people are constantly abused by the Taliban, and “many are missing a hand or a foot or an eye. So many of them have terrible wounds or scars” (Staples 185/186). The way the Taliban treat women is disappointing. Najmah has heard how they “whip women whose shoes make a sound on paving stone" (Staples 180). The Taliban have scared the women so much that they "hide their bangles away because if they're caught wearing any jewelry it will be stolen and they will be beaten” (Staples 180).
In real life, the Taliban restrict people from being free, while enforcing barbarous laws. Similarly, the Taliban are accurately shown as bloodthirsty monsters by Suzanne Fisher Staples. The Taliban destroyed everything that each Najmah, and Nusrat loved. To summarize, the Taliban are a reckless group of people that have turned Afghanistan into a dangerous war