is educated by both Laila and Mariam, who contribute what they know in order to educate her. Mariam teaches the Koran, and Laila eventually volunteers to teach at her school. The end of the book feels hopeful in terms of the education of women in that Zalmai and Aziza head off to school together. A clear distinction is made throughout the novel between true love and marriage. Since the marriages in the novel tend to be forced, they are not likely to be influenced by love. For Nana, the prospect of marriage was ruined by a ‘jinn.’ She remembers the lost prospect fondly. Mariam finds hope in her marriage as something that could lead to contentment and possibly to love, but the marriage actually devolves into abuse and oppression. Only Laila escapes the abusive bonds placed …show more content…
The female characters in A Thousand Splendid Sons connects gender equity and feminism by accentuating the parallels between the class and gender struggle facing by them. Rasheed’s marriage to Mariam and Laila is one representation of marriage in Afghanistan. However, Laila’s parents married for love. They were cousins, which is common and even preferred in Afghanistan, but their marriage was not arranged. Laila’s father is in the weaker position in the marriage, with the mother influencing decisions and the tenor of domestic life. Nana, Mariam’s mother, had been engaged to ayoung man in the more typical manner of an arranged marriage. Her illness, perhaps epilepsy, or as she calls it, her Jinn, became apparent before the engagement was finalized, and the suitor’s family abandoned her. This abandonment was a stigma that Nana carried with her to her death. Mariam’s father, Jalil, has several wives in the same manner as Rasheed. The impression given is that his is a domestically peaceful arrangement. Jalil and his wives are compatible and all