Aziza. Disappointing Rasheed with the girl child, she too becomes the target of his cruelty.
Gradually both the women in the house become the victims of Rasheed’s ill treatment and
dominance. Out of the unhappy household grows a friendship which binds the two women
together. Mariam starts to feel close to Aziza too. The two women now become the strength
to each other and plan to run away from this torture, but are discovered by the policeman.
Once Rasheed comes to know of what the two did, they both are brutally beaten by him
shaking the ground beneath them, after seeing wolf inside their husband. At the same time,
Afghanistan had become no less than hell for women. Their rights were severly reserved,
limited after the takeover of the mujahideen.. years pass and
…show more content…
Laila again struggled for her
second child, again a sacrifice, even when the child this time belonged to Rasheed. The
doctor said, “if we delay, you will lose the baby” “then cut me open....cut me open and give
me my baby. (P- 283)” the strength and edurance of a woman has no end. The introductoion
of zalmai, a male child, as a counterpart to the female child, aziza, serves to illustrate further
the unfair treatment of woman under the present government. Later in the story, a fire
destroys Rasheed’s shop, leaving him unemployed, at the same time Mariam comes to know
of her father’s death. With no one left to help the family, Rasheed decides to give away Aziza
to an orphanage, yet again an act of gender biasing. Laila somehow managed to visit her
daughter daily, she is relieved that at least her daughter won’t have to stay hungry but is
beaten brutally several times by Rasheed for visiting her, still nothing deters her.
The story again takes a turn when Tariq returns to Laila, when he visits her house, “she didn’t
dare move a muscle. She didn’t dare breathe, or blink even...laila stood perfectly still