Women In A Thousand Splendid Suns

“Thousand splendid suns”
In this novel, Hosseini tells the story of the role and place of women in Afghan society. Hosseini has explicitly dedicated himself to examining the condition of women. Laila may be the beloved daughter of her father, but her brothers get all the attention of their mother. Laila is completely forgotten by her mother in her grief for the loss of her sons. Although Mariam lives in poverty, but she has the love of her mother. Both women’s lives change for the worst when they get connected to a brutal shoemaker Rasheed through marriage. Hosseini portrays the hypocrisy of the laws of Taliban whereby the girls are prevented from attending school; are forbidden to work outside the home even when the males are unable to support the family. Women and children’s health are also neglected
The author presents multiple aspects of women’s experience in rural and urban Afghanistan through the characters of Mariam and Laila. Mariam’s life is constrained from the beginning as she cannot go to school, whereas the other leading female protagonist Laila has this opportunity and is also better placed in Rasheed’s house because of her youth and for giving birth to a male child. Later in the novel, both women are required to wear a full length burqa. Both women experience the strangeness of seeing the world through a mesh screen. The use of burqa has become a symbol of oppression and represents the plight of the women of Afghanistan. When asked by Rasheed to wear a burqa, Hosseini depicts the awkwardness of Mariam as she considers it a burden on her head. Unable to see clearly through the burqa, she trips over the hem. The deflated status of women in Afghan society can be seen as the birth of a daughter is not welcomed and does not call for celebration. Contradicting the husband or expressing her own opinion invites the risk of severe physical