Code of Honor

“I didn’t care. It was worth it to defend Darius. He and I had a code. A code of honor. We looked out for each other, no matter what.”

Kamran reflects on the value of getting into a physical fight to defend his brother. He sees it as loyalty to his brother, and worth the punishment he will receive. It also foreshadows the heightening conflict between Kamran’s belief in his brother and his sense of duty to his country.

“Darius was going to be a part of something much greater than himself, something with tradition, with meaning. An extension of everything Mom had taught us about being Persian.” 

Kamran remembers Darius leaving for military service, and his realization that Darius was making this difficult decision in order to honor his convictions and his heritage. While Darius is proud of his Persian heritage, he also identifies as American, and looks forward to supporting American ideals through serving in the military.

“These people had no idea I’d grown up in a suburb of Phoenix like any other American kid, playing Xbox and eating Cheetos. Or they didn’t care. They feared me—hated me—just because my skin was brown.”

Kamran recalls being treated poorly by strangers as a kid, because he had dark skin and looked Arab. He has spent his youth partaking in the same sort of things many American kids do, yet it’s assumed his life is entirely different based on superficial appearances. 

“I looked in the mirror, trying to see what she had seen there. Trying to see the monster everybody else saw, the terrorist. But all I saw was me.” 

Kamran is devastated when Julia breaks up with him because she is afraid that his brother is indeed a terrorist, and that perhaps Kamran is also. This quote typifies the real horror in prejudice, in that it often forces the victim to nearly—if not actually—gaslight themselves, and believe something that isn’t true. 

“Be the strongest of the strong.

Be the bravest of the brave.

Help the helpless

Always tell the truth

Be loyal

Never give up

Kill all monsters.” 

Kamran recites the Code of Honor he wrote with Darius, looking at the sheet of paper he found under Darius’s bed after their home is searched by Homeland Security. The values implicit therein return time and again over the course of the book’s plot, and inform Kamran’s decision-making.

“Our Code of Honor had been a kind of faith. I knew Darius would rather die than break it.” 

Kamran renews his faith in his brother, remembering his conviction to their shared moral code. This continued belief trumps how others perceive of Darius and, most of the time, affords Kamran the ability to retain belief in his brother’s innocence.

“We can’t just move to another country! We’re Americans, no matter what Darius has done.”

Kamran reminds his parents, after they suggest leaving the US to avoid discrimination and further media harassment from Darius’s videos, that they are Americans, too, are innocent of any crimes, regardless of whether Darius has committed one. Running away is not the answer. 

“I sat and watched the TV like a statue, unblinking. Like it was my duty to watch. Like I owed it to the journalist and all those soldiers and civilians who'd died in raids Darius had been a part of.”

Kamran watches the news coverage of Darius’s crimes, feeling numb and like he has to watch to atone for what his brother has supposedly done. This notion of supposed fealty to TV journalism is relatable; in many instances, when tragedy strikes, Americans immediately turn on their televisions, even before processing how they feel about the event. 

“Had they called him ‘monster’ with their looks and their whispers and their prejudice so often that he had finally decided to become what they said he was?” 

Kamran wonders, during his interrogations, whether prejudice has forced Darius into a life of violence against his own nation. This shows how the weight of the sociological can ultimately inform and augment the individual, especially when said individual is the subject of bias. 

“All my life I’d thought one thing about Darius, and now he was maybe something else, and it was like his whole life was a lie. And mine too, for believing him.” 

Kamran doubts his brother’s innocence while being interrogated and held in a government facility, and begins to realize that everything he has ever known about his brother might be a lie. 

“I’m always going to be the damned fool who didn’t know his own bloody brother was a terrorist […] That’s all anyone will ever remember.” 

Mickey Hagan speaks about how familial loyalty stopped him from seeing his own brother’s guilt, and how that blindness has defined his life since. Nonetheless, Hagan continues to believe in Darius, even when others don’t. 

“These were real people. Real Americans, with jobs and families and lives. I had to get away, but I couldn’t hurt anybody doing it.” 

Kamran is forced to consider his own philosophy towards violence during his escape from the government facility, and realizes he can’t hurt his fellow Americans, even if it means his own escape fails. This shows that Kamran’s moral compass has remained intact through all he’s endured. 

“I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I’d been so convinced I was alone. I’d been ready for it. Ready to go it solo, to sacrifice everything to help my brother.” 

When Kamran realizes that Mickey Hagan is not his enemy, but his ally—and that he won’t have to save his brother alone—he feels relief.

“Dane believed down in the core of his being that my brother was innocent for no other reason than because he was a United States Ranger. It was unthinkable to him that a Ranger could ever turn on his own country.”

Kamran is relieved to learn that while most people believe his brother could easily become a traitor, ex-Green Beret Dane has faith in Darius because of his military background, which proves Darius’s loyalty to his country. 

“I nodded. Living in my little bubble in Phoenix, it had never occurred to me that there could be somebody else out there who got what I’d been going through so completely. Somebody who had experienced the same prejudice I did.” 

Kamran is forced to reconcile the fact that many people of Arab-American descent, including Aaliyah Sayid, have experienced the same Islamophobia he has in the wake of 9/11. 

“‘You’re angry,’ Dane said, ‘Anger can be good. It can keep you focused. Alive. If you control it. When it controls you, you’re dead.’” 

Dane talks to Kamran during an impromptu combat training session, reminding him that his anger can be another tool at his disposal, as long as he knows how to wield it properly. If Kamran can’t do so, then his anger may wind up hurting him, or worse.

“The army, they teach you to suck it up. Deal with stuff on your own. Soldiers generally aren’t ‘talk it out’ kind of guys, you know?” 

Dane shares his background with Kamran, and the story of his discharge. He experienced symptoms of PTSD and was too embarrassed to seek treatment, which lead to drug addiction and the disreputable end of his service career. Dane redeems himself over the course of the book, ultimately sacrificing his life for the team’s cause. 

“If you really do have a code, you hang on to it. You lock it up tight, deep inside, and you live by it. ‘Cause in the end, that’s all you’re really ever going to have.” 

Dane reminds Kamran to always live by his principles, no matter who betrays him, or the pain he experiences. Doing so affords Kamran to see his brother as innocent and protect the lives of those attending the Super Bowl.

“I raised my gun to shoot. But I didn’t. Couldn’t.” 

Kamran realizes in this moment that he can’t bring himself to take another life, even when his own is in danger, as he goes into the dark cave where Darius is being held. This reinforces that his moral compass remains working; he would rather live by his own virtues and lose his life than take the life of another. 

“He looks like a crazy old hermit. No, I realized. He looks like Rostam.” 

Kamran almost doesn’t recognize his brother after finding him again, but then realizes he looks just like the Persian hero from their childhood storybooks. This illustrates Kamran’s loyalty to his brother and remembering all that he and Darius have shared.

“[I]t was down to me. Me and our Code of Honor. My Code of Honor. Because whatever code Darius was living by now, it wasn't the same as mine.”

Kamran believes, in this scene, that Darius truly is a traitor, and forces himself to accept the betrayal and stick to his own moral code, even without the support and guidance of his older brother. On display here is Kamran’s own coming of age: even if his brother is a traitor, Kamran has his own principles to live by.

“I […] hadn't known what it would feel like to be responsible for another man's death. It left me hollow and cold inside, like I’d died a little too.” 

After Kamran saves his brother’s life by killing a terrorist sneaking up behind him, he is forced to reconcile with the act. Over the course of the novel, to this point, Kamran has said he would not take another life but here he does. The subtext of this is that in one’s coming of age, rules often change, and one is forced to reconsider ideas they might have otherwise thought intractable.

“And it always will be [hard] [...] some people will always think less of you for the color of your skin, for the country of your mother's birth […] [w]hich means you always have to be the better man.” 

Mickey Hagan reminds Kamran of the reality that he will always be treated differently, and that his strength has to come from within. While being on the receiving end of bias and prejudice affords the person the opportunity to play the victim, it also affords them the opportunity to take the moral high road.