Culpable is an adjective that means deserving blame; blameworthy. Its root is the Latin word for fault or guilt: culpa. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, five-year-old Mariam accidentally breaks a beloved keepsake. Her mother scolds her cruelly:
"This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami."
At the time, Mariam did not understand. She did not know what this word harami—bastard—meant. Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born.