A country at war feels the sting of conflict at every turn. War has drastic effects on the people, the economy, healthcare, education, and countless other facets of life. After decades of war comes the need and opportunity to rebuild an ailing country. However, the reconstruction of a country cannot occur as quickly as the war that destroyed it. The reality of Afghanistan’s tragic war-torn history, its struggling economy, and its halting path to reconstruction directly affect the main characters’ lives in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Afghanistan is particularly susceptible to war in both terrain and in social makeup. The country’s landscape is dominated by mountains and deserts, making the area difficult to invade, but simultaneously …show more content…
Afghanis themselves have a negative view of their economy, with the number of Afghanis who think the economy is not improving at an all-time record high. Although it managed to grow from 2003 to 2012, the economy saw a sharp decline from 2012 to 2014 as foreign aid decreased. Kabul and the eastern areas of the country were hit the hardest, and many experts predict that the Taliban's resurgence will only make the economy worse (Ray Web). Many of Afghanistan's current economic troubles can be traced to their lack of a stable governing system. When the Soviet Union took over Afghanistan, its attempts to mold the economic system after its own failed. Although the Soviets began many major construction projects to bring work and improvement, only 142 out of the 270 were finished by the time they left. However, the numerous projects left thousands of trained workers and specialists in Afghanistan. During their occupancy of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union was accused of making the developing country too dependent on their established economic help. The Soviet Union, however, argued that their goal was an independent Afghanistan, and that the idea of setting the country free was more appealing than the wealth of the labor or resources it could provide. Subsequently, the Soviets developed a near-feudal system of work, pushing the idea that social reform preceded economic development, one of their key philosophies. The partially established feudal system led to an overwhelming number of loans. Western loans always came with political strings attached causing the average citizen to be more likely to borrow from the invading Soviets, who made loans extremely hard to pay back. By 1973, 20% of income was being spent on debt repayment (Robinson and Dixon Web). A glimpse of the hardship and stress this debt caused can be seen in A Thousand Splendid Suns as Mariam worries when Rasheed rashly wastes his meager