Ruicheng Xu
Honors English 12
Mr.Riodan
Cruelty of male-dominated culture
The book A thousand splendid suns tells a story of two woman Mariam and Lilia, one is a illegitimate child raised up by a spiteful and stubborn mother; one is a young, intelligent girl from a loving family, they met each other in a coincidence, from being hostile to each other to friends that went through all the cruelty against women in Afghanistan. This book presented the cruelty of Afghanistan society under Taliban’s Oppressive Regime through the sense of unequaled treatment and abusive policy in the story.
The abuses towards woman started from the rise of Taliban, addcording to Bereau of democracy, Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected
…show more content…
The Taliban closed the women 's university and forced nearly all women to quit their jobs, closing down an important source of talent and expertise for the country. While the book mentioned Laila send her daughter to orphanage to receive education, Afghanistan women seeking an education were forced to attend underground schools, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught. At the same time women were forced to quit their jobs as teachers, doctors, nurses, and clerical workers when the Taliban took over, women could work only in very limited circumstances. When woman lost their opportunity for education, they automatically lost their potential of speaking, because the next generation will be raised up with no education except the sacrifices on their self-respect, then the grownups in the future will have no ability or knowledge or even lack of believe to stand up for themselves. What’s worse, women were not allowed to be treated by a male doctor unless they are accompanied by a male chaperone, it could be worse while most of the women were force to leave their job, include doctors and nurse. All of these lead to the astonishing scene when Laila goes to hospital to give birth to Aziza and was told that founding from united nation was taken away from Taliban, she went through caesarean birth with no basic hygiene supply, not even anesthetic, gave birth to Aziza. Mariam killed Rasheed, turning herself to Taliban and was executed in public, everything in “A Thousand Splendid Suns” reflects reality, a mother of seven children was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul’s Ghazi Sport stadium for murdering her husband, such execution always happen in Afghanistan. The result of Taliban’s sexism regime is not only bad for women in Afghanistan, it is also a disaster for the whole
The Taliban regime was infamous for its treatment of women. Windows had to be painted black so men could not look into the windows of houses and see the women inside. Women were unable to work. Under Taliban rule, women were not allowed to be educated, unable to go to school or university. 9 out of 10 Afghan women are illiterate. Unfortunately, Meena was unwillingly cast into the role of teacher to young girls who wanted to learn how to read. Because she had been to university, girls flocked to...
In 1997, the Taliban made a law banning girls from ages 8 and up from going to school and forced all girl’s learning facilities to be shut down, according to Explora. Some girls still tried to go to school regardless of the Taliban and one of those girls is Malala Yousafzai. Her family did not hide their feelings toward the ban of girls in school to the public, when Malala was twelve she began blogging for the British Broadcasting Corporation about what life was like under the Taliban rule anonymously, and she also campaigned publicly for girls education rights, this enraged the Taliban. As a result, On October 9, 2012 when Malala was riding home from school, her bus was stopped by 2 Taliban members and they fired 3 shots at Malala, thankfully none of them killed her but she was seriously injured by this, as declared by NobelPrize.com. Furthermore, this is not the only harsh rule of the Taliban to women. Women were forced to wear a head-to-toe covering known as a burka, they were not allowed to leave the house without a male, and they made it a rule to publicly stone women who were convicted of adultery, as stated in The Other Side of the Sky, by Farah Ahmedi. Arguably, you can see their was a definite bias in sexes in the Taliban that is very unfair to women
Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel by Khaled Houseeni. The novel explores the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they journey through hardships in the late twentieth century. The first half of the novel focuses on Mariam, the bastard child of a successful businessman. When she runs away from home to her father, he rejects her and her mother commits suicide. She goes on to marry Rasheed, a widowed storeowner in Kabul. The second half of the novel focuses on Laila. She is an intelligent, well-educated young woman and has a flirtatious relationship with her neighbor Tariq. War breaks out and Tariq’s family flees while Laila’s family is killed and she taken in by Rasheed. She marries him and Mariam and Laila slowly become friends. Through a series of events, Mariam ends up killing Rasheed to protect Laila and is subsequently executed. Tariq and Laila end up together and Laila goes on to be a teacher in her hometown. Though the novel focuses on their experiences, it also shows and sets up the history, culture and mythological system of both Islam and Afghanistan during an extremely horrific and turbulent time.
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns features at the most basic level the compelling life story of a two women, Mariam and Laila, and their lives. However, the true heart of this work lies in a much broader issue through all of the characters and the events that took place in Afghanistan around the time of this novels story.Hosseini writes characters into his novel as characters in themselves on the surface, but can be seen as representations of a much larger population of Afghanistan. Hosseini uses individual characters as a window into the larger scene of the entire country of Afghanistan, and the many facets of its people, in order to illustrate the political issue in a new light so as to demonstrate to the audience Hosseini’s hope for the future of Afghanistan.
In 1,000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, a girl named Mariam lives in a small shack with her mother Nana in Afghanistan. Mariam’s father is a wealthy cinema owner who she adores even though Jalil, the father, has numerous wives and children. He only visits Mariam once a week and tells her stories and brings her gifts. “Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born” (Hosseini 4). From the beginning of the book, Mariam was not wanted by either her mother or father, giving her an unstable home life that further affected her outside life. In the novel, Mariam is forced to marry a man named Rasheed who becomes verbally and physically abusive towards her. Rasheed and Mariam take in a woman named Laila to help
Since the tragedies of September 11th 2001, Americans have really opened their eyes to the political state of Afghanistan. The poor treatment of women in Afghanistan is an issue that, for many Americans, just seems to be coming to light as a serious concern that requires outside attention. Extreme Islamic leaders in the country persist in limiting the freedom that Afghan women have. Women in the Taliban-controlled country suffer unusually hideous acts of torment and are forced to abide by outrageous regulations because of stringent enforcement methods. Afghan women daily live lives restricted by Taliban law and risk having to endure cruel punishment and torture, yet Afghan political leaders continue to justify the their treatment of Afghan women.
The women of Afghanistan have been through every hardship imaginable. Khaled Hosseini uses his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns to show his readers how women’s rights changed through out the last half of the 20th century and how the different governments affected the women differently.
Throughout Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, the reader observes many injustices committed due to the presence of the Taliban and cultural conflict in Afghanistan. One of the most concerning issues in Afghanistan is the mistreatment and inequality that women face on a daily basis due to Taliban mandates. Women in Afghanistan are treated as inferior beings to men and are unable to stand up for themselves due the laws the Taliban enforces. Hosseini uses the wives of Amir and Hassan, Soraya and Farzana, to represent the injustices to which women in Afghanistan are subjected.
Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, is indisputably a master narrator. His refreshingly distinctive style is rampant throughout the work, as he integrates diverse character perspectives as well as verb tenses to form a temperament of storytelling that is quite inimitably his own. In his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, he explores the intertwining lives of two drastically different Afghani women, Lailia and Mariam, who come together in a surprising twist of fate during the Soviet takeover and Taliban rule. After returning to his native Afghanistan to observe the nation’s current state amidst decades of mayhem, Hosseini wrote the novel with a specific fiery emotion to communicate a chilling, yet historically accurate account of why his family was forced to flee the country years ago.
The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns explores the plight of women in Afghanistan; the focus is put on three women Nana, Mariam and Laila. Women in Afghanistan often face difficult and unfortunate situations. In this essay we will examine some of these unfortunate situations for women.
In a nation brimming with discrimination, violence and fear, a multitudinous number of hearts will become malevolent and unemotional. However, people will rebel. In the eye-opening novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, the country of Afghanistan is exposed to possess cruel, treacherous and sexist law and people. The women are classified as something lower than human, and men have the jurisdiction over the women. At the same time, the most horrible treatment can bring out some of the best traits in victims, such as consideration, boldness, and protectiveness. Although, living in an inconsiderate world, women can still carry aspiration and benevolence. Mariam and Laila (the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns) are able to retain their consideration, boldness and protectiveness, as sufferers in their atrocious world.
With the introduction and/or evolution of modernism characterized by the invention of new technologies, a different way of doing things, freedom among other things, traditional values and cultures that exist in a community are eventually threatened. As a result, the reactionaries attempt to find a way of maintaining tradition while the revolutionaries try to embrace the change. With reference to the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author has not only successively and effectively discussed the culture of the Afghanistans, but has also brought out the rivalry between traditional and modern cultures.
Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a Historical Fiction Novel about a young girl in Afghanistan, named, Mariam, and all she wants is to be a part of her father’s life. Her father, Jalil rejects her and she comes home finding out that her mother had committed suicide (Hosseini 6-7). This novel talks about the hard lives that women had during the war, forced marriages, domestic abuse, and education. The Afghani war against the Soviets disrupts most families’ lives by taking their loved ones to go fight and then then some do not come back (Book Summary). The war continues in Kabul and destroys the city daily and everyone had to flee to Pakistan. In the book the characters suffer from some different things and then some suffer from the same things. “Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason (Book Quote).” This quote was used because the author felt that the situations that the people faced in modern time and throughout history during war that God had a reason for it all to happen and that He would take care of us.
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini is a historical fiction novel that unveiled the horrific struggles that both women and young girls faced in Afghanistan between the 1960s to the early 2000s. In the novel, the struggles are shown through the eyes of two women. Hosseini wrote “A Thousand Splendid Suns” to bring insight to the forgotten people of Afghanistan.
In his novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, Khaled Hosseini skillfully illustrates many aspects of Afghan culture to the reader. The novel explores the struggles that have plagued Afghanistan, and how they have affected the lives of its people. Through the story’s two narrators, Mariam and Laila, the reader is presented with examples of how the nation’s culture has changed over time. Through “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the struggle in the area between traditional beliefs and progressive changes, specifically as they relate to women’s rights. Throughout history it has been shown these that progressive reforms are unable to coincide with strict Islamic beliefs.