Who Is Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns?

This caused to become violent. He retaliated his anger towards Mariam. She had always had to endure emotional pain in her life, but Rasheed hurt her physically during their marriage. Rasheed from the beginning had a sexist and misogynistic view. He states, “ ‘I have customers, Mariam, men who bring their wives to my shop. The women come uncovered, they talk to me directly, look at me in the eye without shame. They wear makeup and skirts that show their knees. Sometimes they even put their feet in front of me, the women do, for measurements, and their husbands sit there and watch. They allow it. They think nothing of a stranger touching their wives’ bare feet! They think they’re being modern men, intellectuals, on account of their education, I suppose. They don’t see that they’re spoiling their own nang and namoos, their honor and pride.’ ” (Hosseini

These “differences” that the Talib speaks of is one of main ways patriarchy is defended, since God made man and woman differently, the Afghan community assumes that they must be treated differently as well. Also, there must be one sex that is superior to the other then, many communities along with the Afghan community chose to place men above women due to sexist beliefs of the characteristics of a man which should be strong, confident, overbearing, and sex-driven and the characteristics of a woman which should be quiet, obedient, and nurturing. When the Talib mentions of how “we require only one male witness but two female ones”(Hosseini 324) in the court process, he reveals the extent to which patriarchal views are woven into the fabric of society, as far as the criminal justice process. For Mariam, this means that her chances of winning in court is very low since there was only one witness, another woman, Laila, so the court is less likely to believe or take into account Laila’s words. Religion impacts Mariam’s life by plaguing the minds of the courts and judges with her inferiority as a woman which inevitably leads to a flawed rationale rectifying her severe punishment as a result.

These laws that limit the freedom of women within the country give men more freedom, which leads to abuse in Mariam and Laila’s family. Rasheed is physically and mentally abusive towards both of his wives, and because of this, the women attempt to run away, only to be sent back home by police. The reaction from Rasheed shows that he knows he holds the power: “‘You try this again and I will find you. I swear on the Prophet’s name that I will find you. And, when I do, there isn’t a court in this godforsaken country that will hold me accountable for what I will do.’” (Hosseini 272). Rasheed’s threats are serious; many times, the verbal abuse escalates into physical harm towards his family. Moreover, without any support from the Taliban, the women are forced to obey their husband and sustain his

Another example of the unfairness to women is that fact, that men are also abusive to them. Being a man, means they have all the power. They make all the decisions and what they want to happen happens. Early in the book, Jalil, Mariam’s father, chooses a random suitor for her to marry. He forces it on her just to get her as far away from his family as possible. Her suitor ended up to be an abusive husband. Just in a matter of seconds, Rasheed, their husband would flip and turn abusive. As depicted early in their marriage, Khaled Hosseini wrote, “He was like this, sneering, tightening the belt around his fist, the creaking of the leather, the glint in his bloodshot eyes. It was the fear of the goat, released in the tiger’s cage, when the tiger first looks up from its paws, begins to growl” (216). Another time when Laila and Mariam try to escape Rasheed’s grasps, they both get caught and get sent back to him. Mariam took most of the punishment for leaving. “There was a sound now like a wooden club repeatedly slapping a side of beef.” His abusiveness led them to leave but only brought them back to it. As women they have no power in the relationship. Eventually Rasheed’s abuse came back to bite him, and it led to his death. Mariam had enough of his abuse. “Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had” (310 Hosseini). Rasheed tried everything in his power

Rape happens to many women, including Mariam and Laila. They never say no when he wants sex because that will set him off and they will get abused. It’s a terrible cycle. Women are always expected to cater to a man’s needs. Another cultural difference is violence of the Taliban. They make a rise in the middle of the novel and continue to get worse. Women’s few rights are shaved down to literally nothing when the Taliban take control of Afghanistan. Laila loses her parents in an explosion caused by the Taliban. No one is criminalized for it. Soon after Laila and Rasheed’s marriage, the Taliban force the women of Afghanistan to stay inside. Literally. If they leave their house without a male presence, they get violently abused and sent home. Laila tries to visit her daughter in the orphanage that Rasheed sent her to, and a young Taliban member slashes her numerous times with a car antenna. The concept of young children fighting for one’s country is peculiar. Taliban also ban women from working and going to school. They shut down every woman’s school to make offices for themselves. When Laila goes into labor, Rasheed rushes her to a hospital, which no longer sees women. The Taliban are responsible for that. They then go to a woman’s hospital and they reject her as well. Finally they find a hospital

Mariam and her mother ‘Nana’, reside in a kolba (hut) outside of Herat. Her father was a successful businessman named Jalil who was a polygamist and had nine children. Mariam disobeyed her mother’s wishes and hiked into town to see her Father. Mariam returned to her kolba to her mother’s suicide – forcing her to live with Jalil until he insisted an arranged marriage with Rasheed who was thirty years elder. Once in Kabul, Mariam discovered her infertility complications. Rasheed became angry towards his wife’s inability to carry a child – in particular a son, so he became extremely abusive. Laila grew up in Kabul with Tariq who eventually became romantic despite the boundaries between unwed men and women. War took over Afghanistan and Tariq’s

What I found most interesting about the importance of setting in A Thousand Splendid Suns is how fundamentally different the atmosphere was and is for women. Certainly, the Taliban’s extremely repressive politics and laws have been given significant airtime, however, it is hard to think of a more moving example of this hardship than a woman being repeatedly beaten for walking to an orphanage to visit her daughter. Additionally, the generational aspect was not one that I had given much thought, but the difference in attitudes between Mariam’s generation, Laila’s, and Aziza’s is startling. In

Throughout world history women have been treated abysmally. Societies with male-dominance have abused and used women and continue to do so today. Women have been made vulnerable to a man due to the spread of cultural values and beliefs in society that condemn them from power. In Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the two main characters Mariam and Laila develop an unconditional bond in which they become each others protectors. The immense inner strength of women from adversity has been exemplified through the growth of Mariam and Laila's contrasting relationship, the pain they endure from Rasheed which strengthens their bond and the courage within them that ultimately resolves their conflict.

Ultimately, Mariam and Laila attempt to escape, but fail, which in turn infuriates Rasheed even more. These two women then work together and protect each other, and in due course, kill Rasheed during one of his “ritual” beatings. In the end, Mariam is killed for murdering her husband, and Laila, with her children, Aziza and Zalmai, finds Tariq and marries him; then, together they start their own family. Throughout the course of the story, not only was a passionate, well-written story presented, but also a clear picture of what Afghan culture and its aspects are really like.

To keep women faithful and under the control of their husbands Missing: Burqas were a form of oppression. Rasheed says that Hakim (Laila’s father) “lost control of his wife,” Fariba, because she only wore a scarf and didn’t wear a burqa. This shows that burqas were a device for husbands to gain control over their wives.

An oppression that made Mariam fear for her life “She lived in fear of his shifting moods… and sometimes nothing” (Hosseini 99). After four years of marriage Mariam feared for her life and she had a right to have fear especially after “His powerful hands clasped her jaw... leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood and the fragments of two broken molars (Hosseini 104). Rasheed had no fear of showing Mariam who was in control he even went to the extent of locking Mariam in a shed after she had tried to escape towards freedom, “There was blood on his hands… He shut the double doors to the shed, took the key and worked the padlock” (Hosseini 269). Rasheed oppressed Mariam, an oppression that made her fear for her life and oppression that a society

Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.

Afghanistan has long been a war ravaged country, split by civil war and religious divide. A country ruled by harsh Sharia law and warlords. A country in which young girls are subject to child marriages and repeated beatings. The cultural identity of Afghanistan discriminates against women. In Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam’s moral traits and desires are shaped by the lack of gender equality and the poor, unforgiving environment in which she was raised Mariam’s desires were developed from her surroundings in Afghanistan.

Many cultures and traditions differ, but one thing that remains constant throughout them is women and the burdens that they have to bear. Thought these cultures women have to and are expected to cook, clean, raise the children, take care of their husbands and in some cases take care of their families and/or their husband’s families. In most cultures these duties remain static, but one thing that is dynamic is the treatment of women. In Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini portrays the struggles that women in Afghanistan face through the characters Laila and Mariam.

In Khaled Hosseini’s book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, the stories of two Afghani women, Laila and Miriam, are portrayed over the course of 44 war-torn years. During the novel, Miriam and Laila both exhibit amazing resilience, sacrifice, and love despite their terribly tragic circumstances. The tone, syntax, and diction Hossieni chooses reflects these prevailing themes of the story. The novel begins with Miriam’s childhood outside the Afghan city of Herat.