Oppression In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Women have always been faced with harsh and unfair regulations, for example, they were tortured while under the Taliban’s rule. In the novel, Under the Persimmon Tree, the author includes connections on how women were mistreated by the Taliban. The author uses literary elements to display a conflict between her female characters and society. Throughout the book, the author combines reality and fiction in order to give a voice to the women who suffered under the Taliban rule. As seen in the novel, Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples, the harsh and unjust treatment of women under the Taliban rule is clearly depicted, the author connects fictional and realistic elements to help better understand real world situations.

Her reaction to Rasheed strangling Laila shows the reader that she is not the naive woman she appears to be at

In the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, women are mistreated and abused on a daily basis. It is pointed out multiple times that a man will always find a woman to blame. In the book Mariam and Laila's husband, Rasheed is very abusive to them, and always blames them for things that are not their fault. This eventually causes him to be killed by his wives, because they could not stand him anymore.

“ (215). Rasheed telling Mariam what would happen if she didn’t move in with them goes to show the life that women have and how little freedom they have in their life. If Laila doesn’t stay with Rasheed and Mariam then she will most likely be raped by men on the streets and live a horrible life but Laila doesn’t realize the cruelty she is about to endure after she marries Rasheed. There is no way out of the marriage and she will be beaten or even killed if she tries to leave. When Laila and Mariam try to run away from Rasheed when he is not home they are stopped by soldiers at the boarding station “You two, with the child, step aside” (263) they are taken back to Rasheed’s house.

Hafizullah Emadi links women’s violence to men dishonoring their wives. He argues that “Women are continually abused by men who regard them as their personal property and there is no legal recourse to defend them. They are forced to marry against their will and young girls are forced to marry older men. Women are severely punished on suspicions of actions men deem to be dishonoring the family” (Emadi 254). Emadi argues that men subject women to punishment based on actions that men consider dishonorable to the family.

By this time, Rasheed was done with Laila, he had already been on the edge after Mariam and Laila had tried to escape their living situation and felt she would never learn to obey him. To prove his power in general, he felt that the most effective way of teaching them a lesson was through cruel behavior. Mariam has seen a lot with Rasheed, but this quote specifically exhibits how she saw the look in his eyes and knew that he was going to kill Laila. This is only one example of Rasheeds acts toward the girls, these beatings created fear and are the ultimate reason why they stayed in the situation they were in for so long, there was no escape for them. If Mariam hadn’t feared losing Laila to Rasheed, she would have never killed him and he would’ve been still alive; changing the story completely because Mariam would also be alive and we would never know if Tariq and Laila would get their happy ever after.

The injustice Mariam endures in the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, leads Mariam on a struggling journey impacting her future path in life. The injustice that Mariam endures leaves a permanent mark on her life and impacts her from the beginning. Life wasted no time throwing the cruel injustices of life at Mariam. Mariam was marked a harami, otherwise known as a child without a father, even though her father Jalil was alive, near, and well. “She understood then what Nana meant, that a harami was an unwanted thing: that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person that would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance.”

In the late 20th century, Afghanistan was a war torn, male-dominated nation, where a culture of shame was perpetuated and women’s voices were seldom heard out. Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on two women’s experience in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan, and their struggles with shame and identity are central to the story. One character who illustrates this struggle is Mariam, whose troubled upbringing has left her with shame that never fully fades for the rest of her life. This shame manifests itself in Mariam’s interactions with others and in her own perception of herself.

The war and prejudice against women in Afghanistan changes everything for Laura. Her parents die in a bombing and she is left to find her way and determine her fate by herself. Just like Mariam, she is married and like fate would have it, as a second wife by Mariam’s husband, Rasheed. Laila however bears two children for Rasheen unlike Mariam who has none and is treated much differently from Mariam. He compares her to a brand new first-class shiny Benz.

When Laila’s parents were killed and she was injured, Mariam took her in and sacrificed her time and space in order to take care of Laila (199). Mariam didn’t have kids of her own, yet took care of Laila as if she were her own daughter. She cared enough for the young girl’s well being to take her in and show her kindness. When Rasheed is about to kill Laila, Mariam hits Rasheed with a shovel so hard that it kills him (349). She viewed Laila as her own daughter, and she wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her daughter.

For example, Mariam is forced to wear a burqa because of her husband Rasheed. He explains how only husbands should be able to see a woman's face and no one else: “Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that” (70). She shouldn’t be forced to wear the burqa, but in Afghanistan husbands overrule their wives and can make them do whatever they please. Also, Mariam is told to stay away from a lady she barely saw through her burqa.

Their needs and desires are ignored and are considered less important than men. When the Talibans came, men’s needs are prioritized while women are left behind. According to Hosseini (2007), “ Women are forbidden from working”(p.298). This shows that men are given the privilege to go to work and earn money to support their families and themselves while girls are debarred from getting a job whether they like it or not as the Talibans think that women are of the weaker sex and are not capable of doing anything that helps contribute to the society. One evidence, according to Hosseini (2007), “ “Go to Rabia Balkhi,” the guard said.

In particular, when Laila decides to go walk to visit her sister, she does it without the supervision of a male and puts herself in danger of the Taliban. By doing this she is fighting against the stereotype that women in Afghanistan are oppressed and showing her voice that women are independent, even with the simplest of things like walking alone. Laila fights with him and the social construction because she does not believe in the social standards for women; thereby breaking down the single story many Americans have placed on Afghan women. Unlike Mariam, who for the whole book never speaks out against Rasheed, even after he treats her like she is worthless. For instance, one night Mariam had undercooked the rice that she was serving to Rasheed; Rasheed was so furious with her that he forced her to chew pebbles.

Rasheed however asks her to wear a burqa before going out. He makes it very clear to Mariam and later on to Laila, that a “woman 's face is her husband 's business only”. However when Mariam fails to bear a child, after several miscarriages, Rasheed begins to torture her both physically and mentally. Rasheed also becomes cross on Laila when she gives birth to a girl child. Later on Laila gives birth to a boy, but this does not improve her status in front of Rasheed.

Mariam’s step mothers force her to marry a widowed shoemaker named Rasheed and move into Kabul, Afghanistan at fourteen. Rasheed abuses Mariam after she has many miscarriages. Laila is born a couple of years afterward in Kabul to loving parents. She falls in love with a boy named Tariq, but as the bombs rain down she ends up