Why does Amir think he and Soraya cannot have children?

• A. It is fate.
• B. It is the result of their long separation.
• C. It is due to Soraya's medical condition.
• D. It is punishment for betraying Hassan so many years before.

Answer: (D)

Guilt over past actions shapes how Amir reads present events and seeks redemption. He betrayed Hassan years earlier by not intervening when Hassan was harmed, and he carries that memory as a heavy burden. When he and Soraya learn they cannot have children, Amir reads this infertility as a sign of punishment for that betrayal. The story portrays moral choices as bearing real, personal consequences, and this infertility becomes part of Amir’s reckoning with his past. It also sets up the path to redemption later, culminating in adopting Sohrab as a way to atone for what he did to Hassan. The narrative does not treat Soraya’s medical condition as the cause; the infertility is framed as a consequence Amir interprets through the lens of his guilt.