A Thousand Splendid Suns: strength of women surviving during the Taliban Era

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Recommended: Literary analysis of a thousand splendid suns

‘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.

Khaled Hosseini has an interesting way of portraying the two female protagonists. He discloses the tyranny and hostility that the Taliban enforce on women just because of their sex. A critic viewed the novel as ‘a powerful portrait of female suffering’ making the reader explicitly aware of the harsh environment Mariam and Laila had to tolerate. One review expressed that ‘Hosseini defends the rights of women to decide what to be in life’ , this could show that Hosseini directed the novel to be in favour of feminist views. Hosseini’s first book ‘The Kite Runner’ involved two male characters whereas this novel concentrates on two women, which could be argued that the novel is moving away from anti-feminism and towards feminism.

The term ‘Feminism’ is born out of oppression. This highlights the importance of how these acts of cruelty Mariam and Laila faced; ‘fear of the goat, released in the tiger’s cage’ is what ultimately defines their inner feminist strength, ‘over the years/learned to harden’ which shows that...

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...nuously pull together the strength to preserve, as they face so much anguish merely because they are women. Mariam faces agony and sadness, as her father refuses to acknowledge her; she lives with a husband who abuses her for twenty seven years and then hands herself over to the Taliban, after she murders Rasheed who is determined to kill Laila. However, Mariam keeps her inborn grace by accepting what fate hands her. It is only towards the end of the novel, where there is hope for women living in Afghanistan, even though the fear of the Taliban remains.

Works Cited

Book

Khaled Hosseini, 2007, A Thousand Splendid Suns, U.S, Riverhead Books

Internet

VoaNews, (09 August 2010), http://www.voanews.com, (Accessed 27/10/10)

Good Reads.com, (24 September 2009), http://www.goodreads.com/review/ , (Accessed 01/12/10)

Article

Daily Mail, Stephanie Cross, 2008

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