The role of women in Afghanistan in A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini .
Women throughout the years have been dominated by men and struggled to make an impact in their very own lives. In fact only during the women's suffrage were women only acknowledged their rights as people. However even today women especially in Afghanistan are mistreated and ruled down by the men in their households. Khaled Hossieni the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the struggle of female characters trying to overcome the oppression and mistreatment that women face in everyday Afghanistan. The book provides an up-close and personal account of the lives of these individuals. The novel is a detailed account with vivid depictions of sights and sounds of lives that face hardships. The book's central focus are two female protagonists by the names of Mariam and Lalia who represent the historical impact on women in this primitive society. This paper is a look at the novel using the feministic perspective. .
Mariam is an illegitimate child of a theater owner. She loves her father and stays with his family to be near him, but she is forcibly married off to a shoemaker. Her life becomes worse under the soviets and she is abused increasingly by her husband. He eventually married an educated girl name Laila. The book is about the evolving relationship between both women and reveals that both of them are little better than animals. I do hope that in some ways this novel gives people a window into Afghanistan, especially into the difficult existence of Afghan women over the last 30 years. Maybe this novel will give some identity to the nameless, faceless women in burqa walking down the street, so that the reader will now sense that these are real people who have dreams and hopes and disappointments. Just like everybody else (Mudge, 2007, pp. 2-3).
The novel depicts the different facets, cultural social and political systems that together humiliate and degrade women, both Miriam and Laila experience violence and abuse.
