Female Heroine Task

Imagine being a young girl in war-torn Afghanistan, living a life under the rule of the Taliban, with no freedom, where women are forced to cover themselves from head to foot.

The character I chose for my female heroine assignment was Parvana from the book of the same name by Deboarh Ellis.

Pictures of My Chosen Heroine:

The True Qualities of My Character:
Parvana:
- Challenging accepts conventions/social norms, irrespective of the consequences
- Helps others
- Is independent

Examples on How Parvana Shows Each of the Qualities Listed Above:
Parvana demonstrates her capable ability of challenging accepted conventions by risking her own life just to provide her family with food. She did this by cutting her long, beautiful hair and disguising herself as a boy so that she could move about her town freely although there are many consequences for Parvana if she makes a single mistake. Parvana, being the responsible heroine, stayed firmly where she was, she even went to work during the day and brought home her salary to support her family.

Helping others is another one of the most important qualities a female heroine must have. Parvana displays this criteria by rescueing a woman whom she found crying in the streets. She kindly gave the woman a share of her food and even invited her to her house although the woman was a stranger. Enduring the pain, the torture and the harsh environment was not easy for her. But despite her own worries she is still one who cares about another, stranger or friend.

Independence is a word that is used to describe someone who acts freely from external control. Parvana demonstrates her independence when she takes on her father’s responsibility of going to the market and selling goods to earn money for her family’s support.

Quote that Illustrates How Parvana Can Be Classified as a Female Heroine:
“Parvana whirled around to see a Taliban glaring at her, anger in his eyes and a stick in his hand. The soldier raised his arm and brought his stick down on Parvana’s shoulder” (p.57).


Parvana is truly one who is worthy of obtaining an honourable place in the Literary Heroines Hall of Fame. She has been through so much, yet she doesn’t let her guard down and displays so many heroic qualities. Beyond doubt she is the bravest, most independent and faithful person anyone has ever met. This is why Parvana deserves the respectable position of an honourable place in the Literary Heroines Hall of Fame.

Foot Binding

Foot Binding

Foot binding is a custom that has been practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China. It began in the tenth century and ended in the early twentieth century when the new Republic of China banned the custom. The women had to unwrap their feet or else they were threatened to be killed. Some women’s feet grew one inch after unwrapping while others found the new growth process of their feet extremely painful as well as both emotionally and culturally devastating.

Many people have come up with different theories to try and explain the origin of foot binding. One theory is that the custom was practiced by well-born girls to whom foot binding represented freedom from manual labour. Another theory is that it had something to do with a story about an empress who had club-like feet. Either way women and their families took pride in their tiny feet, especially ones that measured precisely 3 inches from the toe to the heel.

The bound feet turned out to be lotus-shaped and the condition has been known to lead to serious infections. There is evidence that some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The custom of binding female feet began when the child was around three years old because at this age, the bones of the young girl’s feet were not yet fully developed. First, each foot was soaked in a warm mixture which consisted of herbs and animal blood. This was used to soften the foot and aid the binding. Toenails were then cut back as far as possible to avoid infections. Next, the girl’s feet were delicately massaged as cotton bandages (which were about 10 feet long and 2 inches wide) were prepared. The toes on the foot were pressed with force downwards into the sole of the foot until its toes broke. The broken toes were held tightly against the sole of the foot as the foot was drawn down straight with its arch forcibly broken. Then bandages were repeatedly wound in the figure eight movement with each pass tighter than the one before it. This caused the young girl excruciating pain. When the binding process was completed the end of the cloth was sewn tightly to prevent the girl from loosening it at some point of time. The feet were unbound regularly. They were then washed, checked for infections and the toenails trimmed. As this was done the feet were kneaded in order to make them more flexible and the bindings were then wrapped again, pulling them tighter each time.

Female Heroine Assessment for Term 4

Female Heroine Assessment for Term 4

For the Female Heroine Assessment for Term 4 I am going to focus on the book "Parvana" with its main character, named after the title of the novel. Parvana is a young girl growing up in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban, an extreme religious military group where there is no access to music or books, where girls cannot attend school, men must wear beards and when women go outdoors they must be clothed from head to toe and accompanied by a male. I believe that this text meets the criteria of a female heroine because of the many good deeds Parvana has achieved. The following points are just some examples of Parvana's bravery and hard work she has contributed to her community, especially her family.

Parvana has:

- helped her father walk to work everyday since he lost the lower part of his leg when the high school he was teaching in was bombed

- sacrificed her good shalwar kameez (a long, loose shirt and trousers, worn by both men and women) just so that their family could earn more money
- travelled to the prison (which was a long way from their home) to rescue their father out of the Taliban's clutches
- despite the consequences that could be made Parvana still bravely went outside to the marketplace alone to buy some food for the rest of her family
- outran a Taliban when he tried to grab her
- accepted her fate which was to cut her precious hair into a boy's style so that she could disguise herself and be able to move in and out of the market freely, buy what the family needs and no one will stop her
- took her father's responsibility to go to the market and sell items to earn some money
- accompanied her siblings outside so that the Taliban would not suspect them
- dug up bones in the cemetery and sold them to the bone broker

- gave food to one of Kabul's many beggars so that someone would some use out of it since Parvana couldn't bear to eat in the middle of the field of bones
- even at home Parvana didn't waste any time, she coached her little sister on her counting, learnt mending from Nooria, read her father's old books and listened to Mrs Weera's stories
- asked her customers about where they come from and what it was like there so that she would have something new to tell her family when she went home

- rescued a woman who Parvana found crying in the streets and kindly gave her food to eat
- not given up hope when she heard that her mother, brother and sisters might be in danger because the city that they were travelling to was captured by the Taliban
- looked after her father when she found him injured
- decided that she and her father was going to Mazar to find the rest of her family
- planted some flowers in the marketplace so that people won't forget how wonderful a thing like a flower is, despite the fact that many people have seen so much ugliness in life