Atiq Shaukat is the protagonist of the novel, though he does not fit the traditional archetype. Atiq is the jailer at a women’s prison in Kabul, and he does not derive satisfaction from his job. Later in the novel, he reveals that he is a Pashtun, a member of an ethnic group in Afghanistan and Pakistan that was favored by the Taliban, which affords him a measure of safety amid the totalitarian rule of the city. However, he does not have the will or desire to use this position of privilege to improve his life. Atiq is the only dynamic character in the text, a dynamic character being one who changes during the course of a narrative. He undergoes a transformation in which he recognizes his own discontent and seeks to remedy it by saving Zunaira.

Atiq is characterized through his relationships. In rejecting Mirza and Qassim’s offers of friendship and misogynist suggestions regarding marriage, he reveals himself as distinct from the social norms and values of the Taliban. His feelings of obligation to Musarrat hint at an underlying moral understanding of himself and his relationships that is not compatible with the rigid and harsh society in which he operates.