Refugee Chronicles: Khaled Hosseini’s “Sea Prayer” and the Struggle for Human Rights

The chapter deals with literary depictions of refugee human rights violations in Khaled Hosseini’s illustrated short story “Sea Prayer” (2018). It argues that in this short story, Hosseini endeavours to defy the European media’s attempts to dehumanize refugees in ways that violate their human dignity. To challenge such efforts, Hosseini presents his characters as identified people with faces and bodies rather than masses who pose a threat to Europe’s social, economic and cultural life. The chapter maintains that Hosseini grants his female characters a voice in a way that undermines the European media’s efforts to silence women refugees and to present them as passive objects. The chapter argues further that Hosseini presents wars as a main cause of displacement and abuse of human fundamental rights. Hence, he calls for ending armed forces as a way to protect human rights. By providing literary depictions of the hard conditions of refugees, the author questions Europe’s moral obligations towards them. Ultimately, Hosseini questions Europe’s moral obligation of protecting refugees’ human rights and calls for ending war.