“Lamb,” Farid said, tasting the word in his mouth. The only people in Kabul who get to eat lamb now are the Taliban.”

This quote is significant because it states that only the Taliban can lamb. Due to the wartime unrest, only the Taliban were able to afford eating lamb meat. This adds onto the cultural value of social status. Because the Taliban are of a higher status than the average citizen, they have more power to enforce their beliefs, even if it means harming others. The Taliban cannot, or should not, be disobeyed because their status is above others. Hosseini is using imagery when it says that Farid is "tasting the word in his mouth." Using the word "tasting" conveys to us that he is wanting to eat lamb, as he has not eaten meat in a long time. It also shows us the corruption form of government that Afghanistan had, as the leaders have everything, but the  citizens and lower class have very little.