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Women's Rights In A Thousand Suns

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Mary Ovsepyan Mrs. Shamoyan Writing for College 12 March 2023 Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom Paragraph 1: Give background information about the setting and the overall treatment and rights of women in Afghanistan at the time. Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns delves into the lives of Afghan women in the 1990s. Women in Afghanistan faced severe restrictions on their personal freedoms and opportunities during this period. The novel emphasizes the patriarchal nature of Afghan society, in which women are expected to be subservient to men and perform only domestic duties. Women are not permitted to work outside the home or attend school, and are required to wear a burqa in public. Domestic violence was widespread, and women had few legal options or protection. Women accused of adultery or disobedience faced public …show more content…

She is the illegitimate daughter of wealthy businessman Jalil and her mother, Nana, a servant in Jalil's home. Mariam's childhood is marked by loneliness and isolation because her father is ashamed of her and refuses to publicly acknowledge her. When Nana dies, Jalil marries Mariam to Rasheed, a much older man from Kabul. Rasheed treats Mariam with kindness at first, but as their marriage progresses, he becomes increasingly abusive and controlling. She is already relegated to a subordinate position in Afghan society, with limited opportunities and freedoms. Rasheed's abusive and controlling behavior exacerbates Mariam's mistreatment, and he is jealous and suspicious of Mariam, blaming her for their inability to have children. When she becomes pregnant, he physically and emotionally abuses her and forces her to have a miscarriage. Mariam's situation worsens as the Taliban gains power, and she becomes even more isolated and vulnerable. Overall, societal prejudices, familial rejection, and domestic abuse shape Mariam's life

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In the Novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Mariam is shaped by nana’s strictness, Rasheed’s abusiveness, and Laila’s affection. This accentuates the overall theme that despite all of the conflict and oppression she faces, Mariam is still able to find love and affection in her life. In the beginning of the novel, Mariam is constantly reminded the she is a “Harami,” a bastard child of Nana and Jalil. Mariam is forced to grow up quickly as Nana makes her cook, clean, and do chores without any form of appreciation or thankfulness.

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Throughout A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini uses external conflict, internal conflict, and characterization to reveal how a woman in a patriarchal Afghan society endures more struggles and hardships than a man does. Hosseini uses external conflict to show how women have suffered under the hands of Islāmic government, such as the Mujahideen and the Taliban.

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This foreshadows that Mariam’s life will be full of hardships and as Rasheed’s wife, she will be faced with exposure to a stricter Muslim sub-culture. Her purpose in life become completing her wifely duties and bearing children. After finding out that she is unable to bear children, Mariam has to endure the rest of her life with Rasheed being angry with her over not being fertile, as his main hope within their marriage was to have a son (Stuhr 60). As a result of being infertile, Rasheed is excited about marrying Laila, in addition to Mariam, in hopes of Laila giving him a son. Soon, he begins to treat his two wives equal to each other because Laila gets pregnant with a girl, which has no value to his values.

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The story begins with Mariam, a young woman living secluded from the world with her mother, who later marries an older man, Rasheed. The story also presents Laila, a young woman from a progressive family who also ends up married to Rasheed. The characters of Mariam and Laila share both similarities and differences in their childhoods, relationship with their father and their interactions with Rasheed and the

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"And Mariam was afraid she lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not." (Hosseini 97) The fifth phase of the life of Mariam is Laila's Entry and Marriage with Rasheed. Laila, a neighborhood friend's daughter of Rasheed is nearly killed in a bomb blast which takes away the live of both her parents. Rasheed saves her and Mariam helps him to nurse her back to normalcy.

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And, with that, Mariam brought down the shovel. This time, she gave it everything she had" (Hosseini 329). Next, Mariam's experiences with her husband throughout the book also show her continuous resilience toward his unjust actions. When Rasheed is furious at his wife, Laila, he strangles her and wraps his hands around her neck, intending to kill her. Fortunately, Mariam steps up by holding a shovel over his head.

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She knew how much of an abomination killing her husband would be to society, but she loved Laila enough to risk the punishment. Instead of running away from Kabul with Laila, Mariam stayed behind so that Laila would never get in trouble for killing Rasheed. She was then arrested and later shot for murder (371). Mariam sacrificed her own life so that Laila could marry Tariq and live happily and freely with her family. She gave up everything, even her life for those whom she loved, even though they biologically were not her children.

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For Mariam, redeeming herself from the killing of Rasheed requires that she turn herself in, which gives Laila the freedom of a life with Tariq. While trying to convince Laila to live with Tariq without her, Mariam says, “It is fair, … I’ve killed our husband. I’ve deprived your son of his father. It isn’t right that I run. I can’t.

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In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the importance of education in woman. With the importance of education in women comes the endurance of woman. Hosseini displays the endurance of hardships that women face in Afghanistan through his female characters in the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Mariam wants to go to school and be able to learn like other children,“She pictured herself in a classroom with other girls her age.

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Kevin Dickey Ms. Eichler English 16 June 2018 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, follows the the lives of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, from childhood into adulthood. The story shows the hardships both women are going through in their lifetime including oppression in Afghanistan as well as abuse. The women live by enduring what they are going through in order to survive their hardships.

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“ Downstairs, the beating began. To Laila, the sounds she heard were those of a methodical, familiar proceeding.” (Pg. 268) Laila was very accustomed to Rasheed beating her and Mariam, as though it was a regular practice. This shows how women were not capable of speaking up for themselves when they were in these situations, therefore they were trapped in the situation.

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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

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Rasheed treats her lovingly and assures her that she will get whatever she needs. He says, “anything you need done just ask Mariam and she will do it for you.” “And if you fancy anything, I will get it for you” (Hosseini, 2007, p.

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In regards to the historiography of gender politics in the Victorian era, the social position of women and femininity had become a problematic issue. Similarly, the gender apartheid instilled prior to the civil war in Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, initially published in 2007, is set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. In this, it explores the story of Mariam and Laila as the protagonists, who teach the reader the reality of life as a woman in a backward Islamic country. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny seen from the perspectives of these two women and observes how they become to create a bond, despite having come from previously living in very different backgrounds.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns’ was written by an Afghan American writer, Khaled Hosseini. The novel narrates the strength and resilience of two women who endure physical and psychological cruelty in an anti-feminist society. It also demonstrates how The Taliban uses fear and violence to control the people of Afghanistan, particularly females. Throughout this story the novel exposes the way customs and laws endorse Rasheed’s violent misogyny and it tells the tale of two women who endure a marriage to a ruthless and brutal man, whose behaviour forces them to kill him. The protagonist Mariam is a poor villager who lives in a remote area in Afghanistan, in contrast to Laila who is a smart, educated daughter of a schoolteacher.

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