Misogyny In A Thousand Splendid Suns

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini allows us to see the strength and resiliency that Mariam and Laila gain as they go through many hardships throughout their lives. It is a story about two young girls, Mariam and Laila who live in Afghanistan. Both girls go through very traumatic events. then cross paths after being forced to marry a man much older than them. Mariam and Laila both endure many acts of violence and misogyny as women in Afghanistan.

Both Mariam and Laila face a brutal and forced marriage at a very young age in their life. For example, Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed although she has no desire to marry him. Mariam begs her father not make her marry a man yet: “‘I don’t want to,’ Mariam said. She looked at Jalil. ‘I

Mariam is mainly abused by Rasheed for little to no reason at all. Rasheed makes Mariam chew pebbles because he doesn’t like the rice she made: “His powerful hands clasped her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold, hard pebbles into it…’Now chew,’ he said” (104). Mariam tries very hard to please Rasheed but gets punished harshly when she makes the tiniest mistakes. Rasheed makes Mariam chew pebbles because he doesn’t like the rice she made. This abuse is an awful thing that happens to many afghan women. Laila also gets abused by Rasheed, but she tries as hard as she can to stand her ground because she can not put up with it. Rasheed goes to attack Mariam and Laila intervenes: “Rasheed raised the belt again and this time came at Mariam. Then an astonishing thing happened: The girl lunged at him. She grabbed his arm with both hands and tried to drag him down, but she could do no more than dangle from it” (241). Laila tries to stick up for Mariam by attacking Rasheed, knowing she would later be greatly punished by him. Mariam’s miscarriage is very hard on her; she emotionally blames herself as well as Rasheed. She did not like how her husband insisted her baby was a boy and thinks it was Rasheed’s fault that the babies died: “Other days, Mariam was besieged with anger. It was Rasheeds fault for his premature celebration. For his

For example, Mariam is forced to wear a burqa because of her husband Rasheed. He explains how only husbands should be able to see a woman's face and no one else: “Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that” (70). She shouldn’t be forced to wear the burqa, but in Afghanistan husbands overrule their wives and can make them do whatever they please. Also, Mariam is told to stay away from a lady she barely saw through her burqa. She sees a woman on the street that smiles at her: “‘Best you stay away. She is a nosy gossiper, that one. And the husband fancies himself like some kind of educated intellectual’” (80). Rasheed even controls her through the friends she wants to make. Laila is also told she cannot leave their house without Rasheed going with them. He explains his rules he has for both of the girls to Laila after she marries him: “I ask you to avoid leaving this house without my company” (223). Readers are shown that Rasheed takes too much control over his wives, Laila and Mariam. He uses his power to overrule them and treat his wives as if they were his