Preview

Women In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
628 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Women In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns
The tremendous downfall of women's rights causes two women to face a substantial amount of obstacles to view and change the economy of their country. These two women, Mariam and Laila, in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, form a bond equivalent to a mother /daughter relationship to gain strength to fight hopeless odds. With Afghanistan having little to no central government it became mostly under Taliban rule. Nonetheless, having strict rules throughout the country lead to women not being valued or equal to men also causing their rights to increasingly plummet. Hosseini’s novel outlines the power of women through the use of characterization. The women bear with limited freedom and domestic abuse for new beginnings. Emphasizing the …show more content…
Continuous wars going back to back, government forces coming in and out, the Taliban invaded and announces the new set of harsh rules for both men and women, however there is more of a hatred and discrimination towards the women. In Afghanistan, Women were not allowed to do things that were considered normal in the U.S. As a matter of fact, cosmetics and nice clothes were banned, women could not be in the public eye without a male spouse near them or they will face severe punishment, etc. In this male- dominated area, women were treated as if they were less of a person, as if their presence were to be completely useless without a man. Most women were victims of domestic abuse in the Afghan culture. “You can't stop me, Rasheed. Do you hear me? You can hit me all you want, but I’ll keep going there,” (320) At this point of time, A catastrophe entered the dysfunctional family lives, a fire burned down Rasheed's shoe making business, Laila/ Mariam’s husband leaving them in poverty, as a result they couldn’t afford to provide the basic needs for Aziza, Laila’s first born daughter and sent her away to an orphanage. Even knowing leaving her home will result in severe, or unruly punishments, Laila is determined and still continues to do whatever she can to visit Aziza, which shows that Laila is strong and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The novel tells us, of the endurance that women must possess in order to survive, but also the love and sacrificial relationship that Laila and Mariam develop together. The novel depicts the destruction of Afghanistan in terms of culture and…

    • 1939 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Failure to conform to such laws results in consequences which habitually comprise corporal abuse. Regardless of these corollaries, Mariam and Laila still stand behind their beliefs. Since women were discriminated against in Afghanistan and not given many rights, Mariam and Laila face many restrictions and confines within their society. “You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten.” (Pg.278) Women are not permitted to articulate their emotions in public, showing the chastisement and absurd nature of the government. Although the government implements rigorous laws, Laila contravenes them despite consequences exhibiting strength and determination. “And so Laila’s life suddenly revolved around ways to see Aziza. If she was lucky she was given a tongue lashing, a single kick in the rear, or a shove in the back. Other times, she was met with assortments or wooden clubs, fresh tree branches, short whips, slaps, or open fists.” (Ch.42) Laila goes on journeys to see Aziza and gets beaten by means of the stringent laws implemented by the government. Nevertheless, she is indomitable to see her daughter by any means necessary. This shows how she epitomizes assiduousness and…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the Taliban is in power, there are bombs over Kabul everyday. These bombs destroy entire neighborhoods, and kill girls walking home from school. Tariq’s father’s health is failing, and staying in Kabul is not helping. Tariq and his family are leaving Afghanistan, and he has to leave Laila and the place he lived for his whole life. Tariq asks Laila to marry him and come with his family, but she has to say no. Laila is the only child left in her family, and if she left Kabul, it would destroy her parents. Tariq is also an only child, and if Tariq stayed in Afghanistan, his parents would have stayed as well, and they would have died in Kabul. Leaving her mother and father would devestate them, and if Tariq did not go with his parents, they would not leave, and then they would die in Kabul. The brutality of the Taliban and their bombs ripped people from their loved ones before they were even in power. One of the hallmarks of fascism is glorifying the state over the individual (Authier). The Taliban leaders demonstrated this by putting their cause of taking over the government before the lives of Afghan civilians. The Taliban also tears Mariam from her family: Laila, Aziza, and Zalmai. When Mariam kills Rasheed, she does it in self defense, and in defense of Laila. Mariam’s trial lasted 15 minutes, and it ended in a death sentence. There was no jury, no lawyer in her defense, no appeal, and no…

    • 2130 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women are seen more as objects rather than people. This is partly because of their religious beliefs, but even more so because of the Taliban. The Taliban completely destroyed the idea of women’s rights. Women were beaten behind closed doors, not allowed outside without an escort, and forced to cover themselves in traditional Taliban regulation clothing. It wasn’t much of a life for the Afghan women. When Marian killed Rasheed with the shovel it was her way of “sticking it to the man”. She entered the world as an illegitimate child, “an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident” and from that point on her life had made little difference. By killing Rasheed she was finally making a difference in her life, as well as the life of others around her. When she picked up that shovel she became “guardian” of Laila, her only friend and companion. Her life finally meant something to someone, she was “a person of consequence at last”. Throughout the novel Mariam and Laila were abused both mentally and physically by Rasheed, and he did it with no consequence; that was the society they lived in. This reoccurring theme of male dominance was shattered when Rasheed died. By standing up for themselves they were standing up for any women who has ever suffered from an abusive husband. Mariam’s final thoughts before she was executed exemplify everything the book was trying to say about a woman’s role in the Afghan…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The factions are joining forces and are beginning to split into two separate groups that will form into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. As the government is starting to shift the usually distinct line between progress for women in Afghanistan and the mistreatment of women begins to blur. One night Rasheed becomes furious because Laila is rejecting his advances towards her and he blames Mariam for this. “Rasheed raised his belt again and this time came at Mariam.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In many regions of the world, there are often different perceptions of gender and race. The single story or stereotypical views of Afghan women as oppressed with no dominant role in society was created because of the United States involvement with Afghanistan. With this viewpoint, Afghan women face challenges of overcoming the oppressive rule of men. Which can be seen through the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns where the main characters Mariam and Laila face the oppressive rule of their husband Rasheed. Another single story is the one created by European countries depicting African civilizations as savage and barbaric. Many Europeans also believes that the only way to fix the Africans was through the help of the superior white race, as depicted…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    seen three decades of Anti-Soviet Jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny. They have lived through unimaginable horrors and now, their incredible stories of hope and oppression are being told. In A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra, the women are oppressed by their husbands and society. Mariam is passive and compliant while Zunaira is defiant and angry, yet both suffer the same pain and isolation. Initially, their suffering increases because their anger at being oppressed and tortured is deflected towards the wrong people, people who actually care for them. Through their difficult journeys, their eyes are opened up to the power and beauty of a loving relationship. The loss or gain of such a relationship is the defining factor of whether or not each character finds peace and self-worth. The women in both novels transition from a state of being hopeful to complete desolation due to the oppression in their lives. Initially, Mariam from A Thousand Splendid Suns expresses much hope about attaining a bright future. She wants to pursue an education as she says, "I mean a real school…like in a classroom, like my father's other kids" (Hosseini, 17). Mariam firmly believes that she can shed her shameful status of a bastard's child, and as she gets older, she takes strides to make this vision into a reality. Moreover, Mariam is constantly inundated with her mother's pessimistic ideals about life, but she believes that "You're [Mother] are afraid that I might find the happiness you never had. And you don't want me to be happy. You don't want a good life for me" (Hosseini, 28). As a result, at first, Mariam is a strong figure with a lively spirit who is able to combat much negativity in her life and continue to dream and hope of a better future. Perhaps, her…

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The majority of Americans are uninformed about the injustice of the Afghanistan women in the many recent years. The women in Afghanistan didn’t always have a burka hiding their face from others in public. There was a time when the women had a life very much like today’s ordinary American woman. In the book, The Dressmaker, we get to know of how oppression changes the lives of each and every person in a family along with the changes in their community. For the community of Kabul changes lead to a financial and economical struggle. The women’s lives are transformed after the Taliban take control of Kabul. The rights of women are stripped from them and they are left with basically nothing. This change in the lives of the women brings more responsibility…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay on My Forbidden Face

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Between the book, My Forbidden Face, written by Latifa, a young women who grew up under the Taliban’s control and the article Women in Afghanistan: Afghan Women’s Rights, written by PBS, have many similarities in how women were treated. They tell how before the Taliban arrived, they were a normal country, with equal rights for men and women, and how the women dominated most work forces, such as teaching, medical, and others. They even played a part in the government. However, when the Taliban arrived everything the women had known about life in Afghanistan was changed for the worse. The both discuss, in detail, the overwhelming circumstances women had to overcome to life their lives, and how they were crippled, both physically and mentally by the Taliban. These next few paragraphs will go in detail about some of these drastic changes made by the Taliban.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mariam's Taboos

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it” (Hosseini, 2007, pg.104). Yet, despite the tragic environment Mariam was in, never once did she think of choosing to get out of her situation. Never once, did Mariam believe, on her own, that she had the ultimate power to choose the course of her own life. One could attest that fact to the inability of Mariam to be independent as a child or to the limited control she had over her own life because of her father. Yet as well, one could attest that her inability to believe she had control over her own life came from the Afghan culture she lived in, and the oppression that women faced due to cultural norms and government control. “A culture prohibiting women to appear in public combined with a widespread lack of education...women are confined to housework” (“Life as an Afghan woman,” n.d.). Regardless, Mariam was denied the ability to choose the course of her own life, because outside sources were making the decisions for…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afghan Woman

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Afghan Woman Prisoner,” a heart-throbbing article that opened my eyes into seeing what is really going on around the world, while I live a life where I worry about not liking certain food for supper. Ethnocentrism played a huge role in the article, especially the society of being a woman, living in a lost civilization in Afghanistan. Gulnaz was raped by her cousin’s husband, who “forced his way into her home, tied her up, and then raped her.” However, when courageous enough to report it to Afghan police, she was accused of adultery and sent to prison. Afghan were too proud of ruining their reputation, saving face was the only thing they can do to maintain their name in the village and so sending her to prison was their way of saving face.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American women's lives are nothing compared to the lives of women in Afghanistan. The Taliban has limited the rights of women in the societies where they have taken over, including Afghanistan. The women are not respected nor treated equally because of the Taliban laws. The Taliban restrictions and mistreatments of women include: whipping, beating, outlawing education for women, sexually assaulting women and verbal abuse of women. In Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner, the rights of women are affected by men having the cultural dominance over women, society rules, and lifestyle.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1900s, life for women in Afghanistan was advanced and satisfying for Afghan women. There were many opportunities for females to form their own lives and live for themselves, with no men or law holding them back. However, once the Invasion of 1979 began, the Taliban began to rise seizing control of the government. Changing laws and restricting women’s life in educational, social, and governmental aspects, life for women became an everyday challenge. Now, women are being to grab the reigns of their life and take back their freedoms, but seem to find challenges on their way to success. The harsh rule and laws from the Taliban has set freedoms in Afghanistan backwards, poorly affecting all levels of Afghan society. Because of the Invasion of 1979 and the rule of the Taliban, Rights…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Lukanovich, N. "Women in Afghanistan - Before and After the Taliban." Forget the Spin. N.p., 7 Nov. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. .…

    • 3493 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cognitive Design

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini is seen through the eyes of two young female protagonists, who have a strong and well-developed character. In the novel, the author shows their hardship, their lives in a hopeless society, Afghanistan, and how throughout their life they face cruelty and vulnerability.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays