A Thousand Splendid Suns Essays

The book is about the Afghan women Mariam and Laila. A woman can be married off against her will, this happens to Mariam who marries a disrespectful man. The population becomes the victim of the unrest that prevails in Afghanistan. The women are the greatest victims. Especially during the Taliban domination women are oppressed: they are no longer allowed to travel alone (without a man), they have to wear a burqa and are not allowed to go to school anymore. Where Laila first went to school and had view at a good job in the future, later this is unreality; she cannot go to school anymore and will not be able to work. Adultery is punished with stoning, but a man may marry several women.

There is also a difference in power between men and women; men have more power and respect than women; the woman is subordinate to the man. A husband may abuse his wife(s) without being punished and a woman may not go against her husband, because she has nothing to say. But when Rasheed goes too far, in fact he rapes within the marriage, and abuses his wives with a belt, they help each other. When Rasheed is about to kill Laila, Mariam beats him to death with a spade. It seems right. Unfortunately, Mariam does not leave without a penalty; a woman who murdered her husband is killed for whatever reason.

Mariam already hears of her humiliating mother Nana that there will always be a war between man and woman. She thinks that women should learn to ‘endure.’ Although Laila was raised much more liberal than Mariam, Laila also noticed that ‘enduring’ is also true for her. The best evidence of this is described in the passage of the birth of Zalmai: there is only one women’s hospital with very poor facilities. She has to deliver Zalmai with a caesarean section without anaesthesia: a barbaric and inhuman proof of ‘endured.’ For women there was no possibility of fleeing, because they were not allowed to walk outside without a man, if they did, the Taliban mistreated them. The attempt to flee for Rasheed resulted in a failure, because Mariam and Laila were betrayed by a man and were taken back to Rasheed’s house by the police. Mariam and Laila have to endure a lot to ‘survive’ as women in the story. They have a very tough life, because of their subordinate position and the way they are treated. Rasheed is the man who mainly puts their lives under pressure. If men and women had just been equal, like here in the Netherlands, the smart Laila would have had a wonderful future and Laila and Mariam would not have to suffer from the ill treatment of Rasheed and the Taliban. You can say that the freedom of women in Afghanistan was hardly or not at all in this book.