Empowering Women In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Despite many successes in empowering women all over the world, there are still countless issues in many countries that must be fixed. All the events and situations that occur in Afghanistan are likely to traumatize people, especially women. In the book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the government is immoral and fails to protect women. In a country where women are heavily inferior to men, there are certain standards put upon women to obey. For example, they must always wear burqas outside, and are pressured to give birth to a son. Rasheed, Mariam’s husband, is rarely ever satisfied and constantly exhibits a vicious behavior. His violent and aggressive actions towards his own wives and other women come from factors such as Afghanistan’s

This results in very unhealthy relationships with both Mariam and his other wife Laila. When Laila attempts to leave Rasheed and escape to another city, Rasheed screams at her saying, “You try this again and I will find you. I swear on the Prophet’s name that I will find you. And when I do, there isn’t a court in this godforsaken country that will hold me accountable for what I will do” (Hosseini 272). Rasheed displays his complete control over Laila and threatens her because he knows Afghanistan’s government will not punish him for it. If there was a better court system, Rasheed would have been be stopped and put in jail already. However, there isn’t, so Mariam and Laila are unable to change his behavior towards them. All they can do is try to bear the pain and suffering, because as women in Afghanistan, they have no other

One of Jalil’s three wives, Nargis, talks about the suitor as a choice for Mariam’s husband and says, “He too has had a great loss in his life. His wife, we hear, died during childbirth ten years ago...and then, three years ago, his son drowned in a lake. He’s been looking for a bride the last few years but hasn’t found anyone suitable” (Hosseini 47). After one tragic event led to another, it is evident that Rasheed’s loneliness is a crucial factor towards his violence. Since he has been searching for the right woman for such an extended time, his patience runs out with each day he has to wait. When Rasheed finally meets Mariam, he realizes that she will never be like his first wife, and that his expectations were too high. Instead of seeing Mariam as a wife and loving her, Rasheed views her as a constant reminder of his first wife, and how she is dead. He will never see Mariam as the ideal partner, and she will never fit his expectations, which results in Rasheed’s constant anger and