The Struggle of Afghan Women in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

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A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khalid Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (later referred to as T.S.S.) depicts the state of
women in Afghan under the fundamentalist Islamic governments of the Mujahedeen and Taliban.
Hosseini gives reason for writing a novel rendering the oppression of women in an interview with
London Times in a December 12, 2008 interview saying, “I don’t want to sound self-important,
but this is a vital issue for the future of Afghanistan. If we eliminate half the population from the
process of rebuilding the country, it doesn’t stand a chance. Women were traditionally the
backbone of the education system. Now we have a country where 80 per cent of women are
illiterate.”

Hosseini also says that he has “heard so many stories about what happened to women, the
tragedies that they had endured, the difficulties, the gender-based violence that they had suffered,
the discrimination, the being barred from active life during the Taliban, having their movement
restricted, being banned essentially from practicing their legal, social rights, political rights”

Mariam and Laila, the two main protagonists, suffer under the custody of a patriarchal superiority
using radical rules and legitimizing the abuse of women. Hosseini somehow adopts a naturalist air
in plotting the stories of both Mariam and Leila. Mariam who is born as an illegitimate child as a
result of an affair between a maid and her master is doomed till the very end whereas Laila, who is
born to a moderate family and a feminist father, overcomes all the intricacies she faces in her life.

However, Leila does not escape the shame that is befallen on all Afghan women at the time where
they are to be blamed for anything and everything, even their mere existence. This is
foreshadowed in the beginning of the novel by Nana, Mariam’s mother, when she warns her of
the future and teaching her to expect nothing from men but the feeling of shame telling her,
“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a
man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.” (T.S.S.
Chapter 1, p.7)

Nana perceived herself as a source of shame and disgrace after being abandoned by her fiancé,
disowned by her father and propelled away after her affair with Jalil to pay for their mistake alone
while Jalil, guiltlessly, enjoys his life along with his wives. She was obliged to take all the
responsibility alone while Jalil freed himself by telling his wife that is was her fault as Nana tells
Mariam, “You know what he told his wives by way of defense? That I forced myself on him.
That it was my fault. Didi? You see? This is what it means to be a woman in this world.” (T.S.S.
Chapter 1, p.7)

Eventually, the Burqa is a sign of oppression and male domination. Afghan men saw in the Burqa
discards women as a sex object by covering her body whereas in reality, the Burqa eliminates a
woman as a human being. It limits the woman to nothing but a sex object, a source of seduction
and shame that should be covered which makes it the same as nudity.
Even at the time when Afghanistan was more progressive before the rule of Taliban, there were
men like Rashid who forced their women to wear Burqa to cover their wives’ shameful body and
decrying men who did not force BUrqa on their wives. This shows when Rashid speaks of his
customers saying, “I have customers, Mariam, men, who bring their wives to my shop. These
women come uncovered, they talk to me directly, they look me in the eyes without shame. They
wear makeup and skirts that show their knees. Sometimes they even put their feet in front of me
[…] for measurements, and their husbands […] think nothing of a stranger touching their wives’
bare feet! They think they’re being modern men, intellectuals, on account of their education, I
suppose. They don’t see that they’re spoiling their own nang and namoos, their honor and
pride.” (T.S.S. Chapter 10, p.75)

Later on, Rashid accepted Taliban who with ease regarding them “with a forgiving, affectionate
kind of bemusement, as one might regard an erratic cousin prone to unpredictable acts of hilarity
and scandal.” (T.S.S. Chapter 38, p.301) He only had to grow a beard and go to the mosque.

He accepted the rules Taliban imposed stifling people especially women and depriving them of
their freedom once they declared Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They played
their message through loud speaker, “Attention women:You will stay inside your homes at all
times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you
must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. If you are caught alone on the street, you will
be beaten and sent home.You will not, under any circumstance, show your face. You will cover
with burqa when outside. If you do not, you will be severely beaten .Cosmetics are forbidden.
Jewelry is forbidden. You will not wear charming clothes. You will not speak unless spoken to.
You will not make eye contact with men. You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be
beaten. You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger. Girls are forbidden from
attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately. Women are forbidden from
working. If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death. Listen. Listen well.
Obey. Allah-u-akbar.” (T.S.S. Chapter 37, pages 296 & 297)

The Taliban are an extremist militia who controlled Herat in 1994 and then Kabul, the capital of
Afghanistan, on September 27, 1996. They forced Afghanistan into a brutal state of totalitarian
dictatorship and gender apartheid in which women and girls were stripped of their basic human
rights. (Campaign for Afghan Women & Girls)

Under the Taliban, women and girls were discriminated against in many ways, for the ‘crime’
of being born a girl. The Taliban enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law. (Amnesty
International UK, 2013) Under their rule, violence against women and rape were endemic. They
were being flagged just because they were born females.

However, after the U.S troops along with U.K ousted Taliban in 2001. Immediately, former UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that “[T]here cannot be true peace and recovery in
Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women.” Also, US Secretary of State Colin
Powell stated that “The recovery of Afghanistan must entail a restoration of the rights of Afghan
women, indeed, it will not be possible without them.” Eventually, the state of women started
progressing.

Moreover, women in the novel were raised aware of their duty as wives and mothers. This is what
they are born for, to conceive. They are a mere object of production and they acknowledge that
very well. For instance, Giti and Hasina, Laila’s friends once told her, “By the time we’re
twenty, Giti and I we’ll have pushed out four, five kids each. But you, Laila, you’ll make us
two dummies proud. You’re going to be somebody. I know one day I’ll pick up a newspaper
and find your picture on the front page.” (T.S.S. Chapter 23, p.176)

When Mariam is first pregnant, Rashid is overjoyed by the fact that he is going to have a child- a
boy. He rejects the idea that he might have a girl as a child. He even starts thinking of a boy names
for the child. The same happens with Leila, when she had a girl; Rashid did not want to name her
and kept on calling her ‘That thing’.

When Mariam encounters several miscarriages, Rashid no longer drew interest in her. She could
not give him a son and so, she was treated as a mere servant. Mariam’s role as a woman ceased
as she was unable of conceiving. Eventually, he later replaced her with Leila whom he treated
fairly until she bore him the unwanted girl. This was when he started despising her too and
mistreating her same as Mariam.

Nevertheless, Leila was more fortunate than Mariam in all ways. She was beautiful. Leila also had
the ability to bear children unlike Mariam who was barren. Leila was born into a middle class
family in Kabul. She grew up in a family which was something that Mariam was deprived of and
tried to have all through her life. Most importantly, Leila was educated. Leila went to school.

On one side, as a child, Mariam over hears that her step sisters went to school. “Since then,
thoughts of classrooms and teachers had rattled around Mariam’s head, images of notebooks
with lined pages, columns of numbers, and pens that made dark, heavy marks. She pictured herself
in a classroom with other girls her age. Mariam longed to place a ruler on a page and draw
important lines” (T.S.S. Chapter 3, p.19)

Immediately, Mariam asks Mullah Faizullah, her Quraan tutor, to ask her mother for permission to
go to school to which her mother replies harshly, “There is only one, only one skill a woman like
you and me needs in life, and they don’t teach it in school… And it’s this: tahamul.
Endurance.” (T.S.S. Chapter 3, p.20)

On the other hand, Leila had the opportunity to go to school. She was lectured on women’s
rights by her father who told her, “Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but
they’re probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they’ve ever
had before… it’s a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan. And you can take advantage of
that… women’s freedom… is also one of the reasons people out there took up arms in the first
place.” (T.S.S. Chapter 18, p.144)
 He also encouraged her to get educated telling her, “I know you’re still young, but I want you
to understand and learn this now…. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You’re a very, very
bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila. I know this about you. And I also
know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even
more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No
chance.” (T.S.S. Chapter 16, p.123)

Furthermore, Leila experienced true love. Even if it was unrequited love for a period in her life,
but at least she knows what love is and she reunites with her lover, Tariq, at the end. Unlike most
of Afghan women who marry people they do not love, she does. Afghan women were raised to the
hope of having many suitors asking for their hands and marrying any of them which is different to
any normal girl’s dream to fall in love with someone and end up marrying him like fairytales.

Unlikely, Mariam was forced to marry Rashid like many other Afghan women. Thus, Marriage is
forced abusive one-sided relationship where the woman is merely a housekeeper and a breeding
machine. The discrepancy appear in the two Mariam and Leila’s marriage to Rashid and
Leila’s marriage to Tariq. In Rashid’s abusive marriage, even sex is forced which he does it by
forcing himself upon his women to satisfy himself only.

However, when Laila married Tariq, Laila thought, “It was blessing enough to know that he was
here, to feel the warmth of him next to her, to lie with him, their heads touching, his right hand
laced in her left.” (T.S.S. Chapter 48 p. 403) There was a great difference between having sex
with Rashid and making love with Tariq. “When they make love, Laila feels anchored, she feels
sheltered. Her anxieties, that their life together is a temporary blessing, that soon it will come
loose again in strips and tatters, are allayed. Her fears of separation vanish” (T.S.S. Chapter 49,
p.411)

Besides, women only gain strength when they ally together. Nana and Mariam live perfectly
together apart from any patriarchal abusive power. Problem only occur right after Jalil’s visit
every week when Nana harshly warns Mariam of him. She tells her once, “A man’s heart is a
wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. It isn’t like a mother’s womb. It won’t bleed, it won’t
stretch to make room for you. I’m the only one who loves you!” (T.S.S. Chapter 5, p.30)

Their downfall strike when Mariam goes to search for Jalil. This is when Nana commits suicide
due to the unbearable burden of being abandoned by her daughter. Nana took responsibility of her
sin in the presence of her daughter. She moves on with her life but ceases to live once Mariam is
gone.

Mariam’s peaceful life also ends there when she is forced to marry Rashid, the local shoemaker
and the source of her struggle. In spite of her father’s love, his wives had more power. They
compelled him to give his daughter away- which proves that women derive strength from their
coalition whether it springs from good or evil intentions.

She never realizes her mother’s sacrifice until later on. “She thought of Nana, of the sacrifices
that she too had made. Nana who could have given her away, or tossed her in a ditch somewhere
and run. But she hadn’t. Instead, Nana had endured the shame of bearing a harami, had shaped
her life around the thankless task of raising Mariam and, in her own way, of loving her. And, in the
end, Mariam had chosen Jalil over her… Mariam wished she had been a better daughter to
Nana.” (T.S.S. Chapter 39, p.307)

Mariam faces a hard time in her marriage. Leila does to. However, their life starts being tolerable
once they become friends after Mariam had stood up against Rashid preventing him from beating
Laila and Laila standing up for Mariam. They later had tea together and “Laila knew that they
were not enemies any longer.” (T.S.S. Chapter 34, p.266)

They not even helped each other in the domestic chores, but they became so close that Mariam
loved Aziz, Laila’s child and a harami child like her, ardently as her own daughter. They later
tried to flee from Rashid to Pakistan together. However, they are arrested and taken back to Rashid
who beats them up and locks them up a few days along with Aziza with no food or water.

Laila helps Mariam perceive her lost rights making her wonder, “Had she been a deceitful wife?
A dishonorable woman? Disceditable? Vulgar? What harmful thing had she willfully done to this
man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented her? Had she
not looked after him when he was ill? Fed him, and his friends, cleaned up after him dutifully?
Had she not given this man her youth? Had she ever justly deserved his meanness? ” (T.S.S.
Chapter 45, p.372)

When Rashid wanted to suffocate Laila, it was Mariam who saved her. “He’d taken so much of
he in twenty seven years of marriage. She would not watch him take Leila too.” (T.S.S. Chapter
45 p.373) She sacrificed her life in order to save Laila’s life . She found in killing Rashid the
only way out of the misery she bore over the years. It was “the first time that she was deciding
the course of her own life.” (T.S.S. Chapter 45, p.374) All her life has been a series of reactions
to other people’s action she has always been subservient, submissive and obedient. It was about
time she changed that and stood up for her own rights.

When Mariam went to jail, she was cherished among other women who were imprisoned for the
thought that she had overcome a superior abusive power. She had killed her husband. Mariam did
not speak much. “She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child… And yet she was
leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as … A
mother… It was not bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this was. Not so bad. This was a
legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.” (T.S.S. Chapter 47 p.396)

Mariam’s sole concern right before her death was that her wishes to see Laila again and hear her
laugh and have tea with her. She lamented the fact that she could not see Aziza grow up and see
her get married or play with her children. “…there had been moments of beauty in it, Mariam
knew that life had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help
but wish for more of it.” (T.S.S. Chapter 47, p.395)
Finally, when the US declare war on Taliban, there is hope in Afghanistan. Schools re-open; new
ones are even built. Women go back to work and everything seems just as Laila’s father had told
her. She starts thinking of going back to Kabul after spending years in hope of escaping from it.
She feels that she wants to take part in the major alteration happening in Kabul. She tells Tariq,
“This isn’t home. Kabul is, and back there so much is happening, a lot of it good. I want to be a
part of it all. I want to do something. I want to contribute.” (T.S.S. Chapter 50 p. 416)

The novel ends by Zalmai and Aziza going back to schools in Kabul. Laila and Tariq volunteer to
renovate and orphanage where Laila becomes a teacher. She is also pregnant with Tariq ’s child.
Laila knows that the Taliban are regrouping, but somehow, she is full of hope.