a thousand splendid suns essay

Themes and Analysis

A thousand splendid suns, by khaled hosseini.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' digs deeply into issues of motherhood, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit in the face of unfathomable sorrow.

Article written by Charles Asoluka

Degree in Computer Engineering. Passed TOEFL Exam. Seasoned literary critic.

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ explores a variety of themes, such as the difficulties Afghan women experience in a patriarchal society and the harsh gender roles that are enforced on them. It shows how women are denied fundamental freedoms and rights and how the expectations of males influence their life. It also talks about the unwavering love and selflessness of its female protagonists, who are ready to endanger their lives for those they care about. It illustrates how love may promote optimism and resiliency despite extreme adversity.

Khaled Hosseini also explores the catastrophic effects of conflict on common people during a time of political unrest and war in Afghanistan. It shows how homes and towns are destroyed, lives are lost, and millions of people are displaced. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ characters are a testament to the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit. The protagonists can withstand extreme tribulation and still maintain optimism in the face of difficulty. It shows how the human spirit can triumph in the face of the most trying situations.

Afghan History

The setting of ‘ A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is Afghanistan, a nation whose tribal tribes have fought for hundreds of years between foreign invasions. The characters’ struggle for survival amid conflict clearly reflects the conflicting political forces and factions that vie for control of the nation and its citizens. The novel’s historical elements cover a sizable amount of time—30 years—to depict how the effects and pain of war are passed down through generations. Laila’s family experiences the impact of the Soviet occupation while Mariam navigates the first years of her marriage to Rasheed. The Soviets fire Laila’s father from his position as a teacher, and Ahmad and Noor, two of Laila’s brothers, are killed while battling the Soviets. Although Laila’s family is in trouble, Laila’s teacher supports the Soviets and maintains that the populace has overthrown the former government. Due to the loss of the boys—first to the army and then when they are killed—her mother experiences despair. Laila struggles to feel like she belongs in the family because her parents always quarrel. The ongoing conflict and political change cycle has shaped Laila’s entire young life.

For Laila’s family, the Soviets leaving seemed like a happy turn of events, but a tribal faction’s attempt to seize control leads to conflict between them. Tariq’s family departs Kabul for Pakistan due to the instability. Giti, Laila’s best friend, is destroyed by a rocket, and her parents are killed by shelling her home. Rasheed and Mariam are necessary for Laila’s life, but this circumstance quickly becomes unsustainable as well. Laila, Mariam, and Aziza have no chance at all of evading capture when the Mujahideen take over Kabul, and they are sentenced to home confinement, where they almost dehydrate to death. Then, the ongoing conflict between tribal tribes and the Taliban’s extensive territory turns into a full-scale campaign on women. Rasheed is pleased that a more conservative government is in place, but because of the Taliban’s severe regulations, Laila must deliver Zalmai via cesarean section without anesthetic. The cruelty of the Taliban is matched by the cruelty Rasheed exhibits at home. No aspect of life for any of the characters has not been touched by war.

Shame, Social Status, and Reputation in A Thousand Splendid Suns

Several of the characters make decisions based on how their actions will impact their reputation rather than their desires. This dissonance results in varied degrees of humiliation for numerous characters. Rasheed’s interactions demonstrate how reputation may be used as a weapon, while Nana’s treatment of Mariam demonstrates how reputation can be used as a tool to instill shame. The plot of the novel is set in motion by Jalil’s shame at having Mariam recognized as his daughter. Mariam would not have wed Rasheed if he had not worried about what other people would think of him. Throughout the book, Mariam is identified by her reputation as a harami. Laila, who consistently prioritizes her own goals over those of others, is one of the few characters who can struggle with throwing away her reputation. Mariam eventually succeeds in doing this as well, and it turns out to be the turning point in her story. A person’s reputation in Afghanistan matters not only personally but also politically. The Taliban’s Shari’a laws have serious consequences for women who do not experience sentiments of shame, like Laila.

Genuine Love in A Thousand Splendid Suns

The concept of pure love contrasts and coexists with the terrible outcomes of arranged weddings. Mammy (Fariba) and Babi (Hakim), Laila’s parents, had a real love-type marriage. Despite their frequent arguments in Laila’s early years, they still spoke with affection about how they met and fell in love. They still like relating their courtship tales to Laila. Their relationship is stressed out by life’s occurrences rather than a lack of affection. The author implies through these two characters that true love does not involve violence but rather involves sticking together and making decisions as a couple. Mammy and Babi delay leaving Kabul until they are both on board, a choice that ultimately costs them their lives. Laila remembers them as having a loving relationship, even though she is subjected to horrific brutality in her arranged marriage. Laila finds the courage to confront Rasheed and the understanding that she does not deserve his violence from the memories of her parent’s love for one another.

True love is demonstrated through Laila’s narrative with Tariq, which demonstrates that it endures. Tariq, her high school sweetheart, ends up being her lover. Afterward, Laila is committed to protecting his child, even if it means wed to the hateful Rasheed. When she thinks Tariq is dead, Laila keeps his memory alive and rushes to him when he knocks on her door. Laila is aware that Tariq’s presence in the home will lead to issues, but she is unsure of how harsh Rasheed’s response will be. She is prepared to deal with the repercussions, though, to speak with Tariq. When Laila must flee, Tariq waits close by, and she follows him. In the novel’s conclusion, they are married, and despite the sadness that comes along with their happiness, their love is still strong.

Another illustration of genuine love in the book is Mariam’s devotion to Aziza, Laila, and later Zalmai. Mariam’s narrative emphasizes the virtue of being prepared to make sacrifices for loved ones. Because of her love for Zalmai, Mariam is unwilling to run to safety with Laila, even if she is willing to risk her life to save the latter. She doesn’t want Zalmai to have to deal with living with his father’s murderer. She loves Laila and Aziza too much to insist on their staying, though. She values their security more than her own life. Because she was able to love Laila and the kids, the family she always desired, Mariam claims she has had a fulfilling life. Despite her fear of dying, she is able to meet her death peacefully because of this understanding.

Pain and Resilience in A Thousand Splendid Suns

All of the characters in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ have experienced both physical and emotional agony. But this sorrow manifests itself in various ways. Losing a loved one causes its unique brand of acute pain, frequently in a way that doesn’t appear to offer any sort of solace. But, there are other forms of hardship that the characters voluntarily put up with to save others. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ appears to be struggling with how to establish a hierarchy of suffering and loss. Is the death of Laila’s brothers—which occurred after Babi, or so Mammy alleges—allowed them to fight the Mujahideen somehow worse than the accidental rocket that took Giti’s life? Several techniques are used by the characters to deal with such hardship. After the passing of her sons, Mammy seeks solace in her gloomy bedroom but never fully appears to be able to get over her grief. Laila is more practical; she marries Rasheed as a result of her parents’ passing rather than despite it because she believes it to be her only alternative. This kind of tenacity seems to be encouraged in the book rather than the immobility that can result from suffering. Even though the characters’ pain may be irreversible, there is strength and value to be derived from their ability to survive.

This is particularly true when the characters voluntarily choose to endure. For instance, Laila voluntarily consents to be beaten by the Taliban for going alone as a woman to visit and spend time with her daughter Aziza who is being raised in an orphanage. Mariam naturally decides to kill Rasheed to give Laila a better chance at life, despite knowing full well that she will be found guilty and put to death by the Taliban as a result. It is suggested that women, in particular, excel at this capacity to willingly suffer for the benefit of others. From Mariam’s sacrifice to Laila’s very difficult childbirth, women suffer on their own.

Intergender Dynamics and Afghan Women

Hosseini can highlight particular facets of Afghan life and history that diverge from the mainstream historical narrative by recounting the tale of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ from the perspectives of two Afghan women. In reality, the book makes use of the restrictions placed on Afghan women to examine how women have dealt with, overcome, and defied these restraints. Throughout the book, gender relations vary according to the occupying troops and the regulations that go along with them. For instance, under communist control, girls are allowed to go to school and work outside the family. Babi pushes Laila to capitalize on this status and praises it. Yet, before being married, girls are advised not to spend too much time with people of the other sex. Gender relations can also be influenced by particular cultural or traditional customs; Mariam, for example, has been forced to wear a burqa by her husband for a long time before it was made legal. The ones who go off to fight are the males, like Laila’s brothers, while the women stay at home and frequently have to deal with the effects of war.

The Mujahideen and, later, the Taliban arrive, significantly altering the comparatively progressive gender norms of communism. The limitations on Laila’s freedom of expression and travel have the effect of removing Kabul, the city she always believed to be hers. Nonetheless, the protagonists manage to buck these expectations. Laila slips to the orphanage across town, and Mariam plots an escape from Rasheed with her. Although Rasheed’s brutal beatings may have been lawful under the Taliban, Hosseini is unmistakably on the side of more rights for women, and the reader is intended to support Laila and Mariam as they fight against these injustices.

What is the main theme in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ?’

The persecution of women in a patriarchal society is one of the main themes in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns. ‘ The book is set in Afghanistan, a nation where women are required to act by gender norms and are denied fundamental freedoms like the right to an education and the freedom to travel around as they like.

What lessons can be gleaned from ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ?’

One of the lessons in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is the value of human fortitude and the capacity to bear unfathomable agony. Throughout the upheaval of war, Mariam and Laila, two women who struggle in a patriarchal culture, forge an unshakable relationship. Their experience is told in the novel. The tale also teaches readers the value of female unity. Mariam and Laila develop a strong friendship despite coming from different origins.

What genre is “A Thousand Splendid Suns” ?

Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is a work of fiction that falls within the literary and historical fiction categories. A subgenre of literature, known as historical fiction, uses historical persons or events as the backdrop for fictional stories that are set in the past. The novel ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns ‘ is set in Afghanistan in the 1980s, during the Soviet occupation, and in the 1990s, during the Taliban administration.

Why did Mariam stay with Rasheed in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns?’

Mariam’s decision to endure the violence and stay with Rasheed can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, societal and cultural pressures played a significant role. Growing up in a society where women were expected to be obedient and submissive, Mariam internalized these expectations and felt trapped in her marriage. Additionally, Mariam felt a sense of duty and responsibility towards her role as a wife and mother, despite the mistreatment she endured.

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Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay (Book Review)

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Introduction

Ethical matters.

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a 2007 book by American writer Khaled Hosseini, his second, after his bestselling debut, The Kite Runner (2003).

The subsequent novel from Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) has received mostly positive reviews with the Rocky Mountain News saying, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a significant, confrontational work. The wealthy and violent account of Afghanistan offers a backdrop that notifies and drenches the story. Hosseini’s natures, Mariam and Laila, are memorable; their sympathy for each other and love for their children is overwhelming.

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” narrates the story of two women against the backdrop of the previous forty years in Afghanistan. Mariam was born as an unlawful child in 1959 and was violently married to a man from Kabul when she was 15. Her husband was insulting and mean and he obliged her to wear a burqa even though lots of liberal women in Kabul were enabled to go without it. Laila was born just before the Russian assault and had daydreams of a life of schooling and traveling. A bomb kills her family and she recuperates from her injuries in Mariam’s house. While she is occupied, Mariam’s spouse pays attention to Laila. With the appearance of the Taliban, the women have few choices, if any.

While Afghanistan has almost vanished from the newspaper headings, Hosseini’s goes on, and “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, provides all the crowd-agreeable appeal of his success, with some star-crossed devotees thrown in for good calculate. The key action starts in the early 1970s, when 15-year-old Mariam, after her mother’s suicide, is rudely obliged to marry Rasheed, a seriously older Kabul shoemaker. One of the most disgusting men in current literature, Rasheed has ‘diluted bloodshot eyes and fingernails yellow-brown, like the decaying apple. He’s not only unattractive on the appearance: He remains his nubile bride in the burqa, fundamentally joined to the views of their scruffy house where, step by step, year after year, she gradually loses prettiness, teeth, and her combating courage.

All Mariam could do in the appeared circumstances was to tell Laila to leave Kabul with Tariq, Aziza, and Zalmai. Laila at first rejects to leave without Mariam and asks her to come, but eventually, she and Tariq take the kids and depart to Pakistan, where they get married and snuggle down. Mariam gets back to the Taliban, admits to killing Rasheed, and is put to death.

In 2003 (almost two years after the collapse of the Taliban to NATO arms), Laila and Tariq decide to get back to Afghanistan. They settle in the town near Herat where Mariam was grown up, and determine a package that Mariam’s father had left after for her: a cassette of Pinocchio, her split of the family heritage, and a note from Jalil clarifying how much lament he felt in marrying her off just to keep dignity. They get back to Kabul and whip up the orphanage. The book ends with an orientation to them concluding new names for Laila’s new baby, but they’re only disputing male forenames, as Laila already recognizes the name if it’s a girl. It is entailed that the name would be Mariam.

The narrative magician Khaled Hosseini has interlaced his magnificence around the reader’s heart and mind at once. If The Kite Runner was a gauge for averages, this latest novel is surely a shot conqueror. Hosseini has a ball pointed the most conspicuously simple terms, which have, as the name proposes, the most impressive collision.

Relating the ethical matters, revealed in “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, it is necessary to mention, that it provides a sight of the rise and fall of Kabul, originally set in the Soviet period and moving right into the ominous epoch of Taliban-isation. On the other hand, the concentration of this story is on two women, demonstrating their changeover from a society that squeezed femaleness to a world that sought to smother it. Similar in theme to its precursor, the plot and personalities produced by Hosseini in this book are casualties of deep pain and affecting trauma – the degree to which is unfeasible to figure out right from the very first episode and down to the last word. And yet, this dazzling writer copes to enrapt the readers in the curls and spins of this story rather deep to make the reader believe all the truth of the situation, and realize all the horrors and challenges of military conflict in Afghanistan.

The characters of Splendid Suns are Mariam and Laila – two ladies uniformly strapping in their ethics and values, and yet so various in their characters. Mariam is regarded as a childlike young girl, an illicit child who is taken off the family as a bride to the respected Rasheed. Laila, alternatively, is the brilliant, determined daughter of a highly rational and moderate father. The book exchanges quickly between the self-governing existences of the two women, and every episode offering various viewpoints on the status of a woman in Afghanistan in the years previous to the invasion and its succeeding collapse.

With each page, readers regard Mariam and Laila adjusting in rejoinder to the occasions both in their individual lives as well as the community around them. Their worlds abruptly crash at a time when contentment appears to be a miserable, outlying expectation for each and yet, is the only highway to individual freedom. Under the supremacies of the egotistic Rasheed, the hostile to the Taliban armed forces, these women tolerate tremendous emotional trauma almost every day. Certainly, the root cause of his great success, Hosseini’s words strike home once again. We see this in the simple motherly advice given to Mariam by her mother. Nana: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always a simple analogy that screams out the plague that is gender inequality.

Most of the touching positions made in the book are meant to evoke compassion for the women, although Hosseini has been careful to make certain that not all Afghani men are seen as the devil’s advocates. Laila’s infancy best friend Tariq is one such instance. As crafted out by the author, Tariq’s personality is the ideal foundation of the company in times of need. I was glad that Hosseini coped to strike this balance in his story, for fear that he would just be written off as a biased, radical feminist.

Although it is necessary to admit, the story leaves the reader deeply saddened and discomforted. Several scenes in the book may seem too heavy to digest, but they are certainly essential to the development of its characters and plot. This roller-coaster ride of lies, trauma, endurance, oppression, love in all its forms, willpower, and political turmoil are truly indicative of Khalid Hosseini’s immense talent as a writer.

If comparing the ethical matters of the novel with the notions by philosophers, it is necessary to mention, that Immanuel Kant commenced his moral hypothesis, which sought to institute the highest standard of ethics. He stated that an ethical system exists whereby moral prerequisites are prerequisites of basis, and the correctness of achievements is resolved by their agreement with moral rules. As a result, a depraved exploit will always be judged an illogical action. The ultimate moral standard is a reliable “working criterion” that confirms to be “sensibly accommodating and hypothetically informative” when applied by normal mediators as conduct for making individual selections.

Aristotle imagined an ethical system that may be expressed in “self-realization”. When an individual performs according to one’s origin and realizes the full potential, one will do well and be satisfied. Aristotle noted, “Nature does nothing in vain.” Consequently, it is essential for individuals to act accordingly with their character Happiness was held to be the eventual aim.

Khaled Hosseini A Thousand Splendid Suns Riverhead publishers; 2007.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 28). Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-thousand-splendid-suns-by-khaled-hosseini-review/

"Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns." IvyPanda , 28 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/a-thousand-splendid-suns-by-khaled-hosseini-review/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns'. 28 September.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-thousand-splendid-suns-by-khaled-hosseini-review/.

1. IvyPanda . "Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-thousand-splendid-suns-by-khaled-hosseini-review/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-thousand-splendid-suns-by-khaled-hosseini-review/.

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A Woman’s Lot in Kabul, Lower Than a House Cat’s

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By Michiko Kakutani

• May 29, 2007

It’s not that hard to understand why Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, “The Kite Runner” (2003), became such a huge best seller, based largely on word of mouth and its popularity among book clubs and reading groups. The novel read like a kind of modern-day variation on Conrad’s “Lord Jim,” in which the hero spends his life atoning for an act of cowardice and betrayal committed in his youth. It not only gave readers an intimate look at Afghanistan and the difficulties of life there, but it also showed off its author’s accessible and very old-fashioned storytelling talents: his taste for melodramatic plotlines; sharply drawn, black-and-white characters; and elemental boldfaced emotions.

Whereas “The Kite Runner” focused on fathers and sons, and friendships between men, his latest novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” focuses on mothers and daughters, and friendships between women. Whereas “Kite Runner” got off to a gripping start and stumbled into contrivance and sentimentality in its second half, “Splendid Suns” starts off programmatically and gains speed and emotional power as it slowly unfurls.

Like its predecessor, the new novel features a very villainous villain and an almost saintly best friend who commits an act of enormous self-sacrifice to aid the hero/heroine. Like its predecessor, it attempts to show the fallout that Afghanistan’s violent history has had on a handful of individuals, ending in death at the hands of the Taliban for one character, and the promise of a new life for another. And like its predecessor, it features some embarrassingly hokey scenes that feel as if they were lifted from a B movie, and some genuinely heart-wrenching scenes that help redeem the overall story.

Mr. Hosseini, who was born in Kabul and moved to the United States in 1980, writes in straight-ahead, utilitarian prose and creates characters who have the simplicity and primary-colored emotions of people in a fairy tale or fable. The sympathy he conjures for them stems less from their personalities (the hero of “Kite Runner” was an unlikable coward who failed to come to the aid of his best friend) than from the circumstances in which they find themselves: contending with unhappy families, abusive marriages, oppressive governments and repressive cultural mores.

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In the case of “Splendid Suns,” Mr. Hosseini quickly makes it clear that he intends to deal with the plight of women in Afghanistan, and in the opening pages the mother of one of the novel’s two heroines talks portentously about “our lot in life,” the lot of poor, uneducated “women like us” who have to endure the hardships of life, the slights of men, the disdain of society.

This heavy-handed opening quickly gives way to even more soap-opera-ish events: after her mother commits suicide, the teenage Mariam — the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man, who is ashamed of her existence — is quickly married off to a much older shoemaker named Rasheed, a piggy brute of a man who says it embarrasses him “to see a man who’s lost control of his wife.”

Rasheed forces Mariam to wear a burqa and treats her with ill-disguised contempt, subjecting her to scorn, ridicule, insults, even “walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat.” Mariam lives in fear of “his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not.”

The life of the novel’s other heroine, Laila, who becomes Rasheed’s second wife, takes an even sharper trajectory toward ruin. Though she is the cherished daughter of an intellectual, who encourages her to pursue an education, Laila finds her life literally shattered when a rocket — lobbed by one of the warlord factions fighting for control of Kabul, after the Soviet Union’s departure — lands on her house and kills her parents.

Her beloved boyfriend, Tariq, has already left Kabul with his family — they have become refugees in Pakistan — and she suddenly finds that she is an orphan with no resources or friends. When she discovers that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child and learns that Tariq has supposedly died from injuries sustained in a rocket attack near the Pakistan border, she agrees to marry Rasheed, convinced that she and her baby will never survive alone on the streets of Kabul.

At first Mariam sees Laila as a rival and accuses her of stealing her husband, but when Laila’s baby, Aziza, arrives, Mariam begins to soften. Gradually, she and Laila become allies, trying to shield each other from Rasheed’s rages and demands. Mariam becomes a second mother to Aziza, and she and Laila become best friends.

In the opening chapters of the book the characters are so one-dimensional that they feel like cartoons. Laila is the great beauty, with a doting father and a protective boyfriend — a lucky girl whose luck abruptly runs out. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a bitter woman and a disloyal father — an unlucky girl whose luck turns from bad to worse. And Rasheed is the evil bully, a misogynist intent on debasing his two wives.

Gradually, however, Mr. Hosseini’s instinctive storytelling skills take over, mowing down the reader’s objections through sheer momentum and will. He succeeds in making the emotional reality of Mariam and Laila’s lives tangible to us, and by conjuring their day-to-day routines, he is able to give us a sense of what daily life was like in Kabul — both before and during the harsh reign of the Taliban.

He shows us the Taliban’s “beard patrols,” roaming the streets in Toyota trucks “on the lookout for clean-shaven faces to bloody.” He shows us hospitals turning away women in labor because men and women are supposed to be seen at different hospitals. And he shows us the “ ‘Titanic’ fever” that gripped Kabul in the summer of 2000, when pirated copies of that film turned up in the city: entertainment-starved people surreptitiously dug out their TVs (which had been hidden away, even buried in backyards) and illicitly watched the movie late at night, and riverside vendors began selling Titanic carpets, Titanic deodorant, Titanic toothpaste, even Titanic burqas.

In the end it is these glimpses of daily life in Afghanistan — a country known to most Americans only through news accounts of war and terrorism — that make this novel, like “The Kite Runner,” so stirring, and that distract attention from its myriad flaws.

The Books of The Times review yesterday, about “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini, misspelled a character’s name. She is Laila, not Lila.

How we handle corrections

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled hosseini, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

None of the characters in the novel is a stranger to pain and suffering, either physical or emotional. However, this suffering takes different forms. The loss of loved ones brings its own kind of acute pain—often in a way that seems to lack any kind of redemption. On the other hand, there are other types of suffering that the characters willingly endure in the service of others.

A Thousand Splendid Suns seems to grapple with how to create a hierarchy of grief and suffering: is the loss of Laila’s brothers, after Babi (or so Mammy accuses him) allowed them to fight the Mujahideen, somehow worse than the random rocket that killed Laila’s friend Giti ? The characters grapple with such suffering in different ways. Mammy takes refuge in her dark bedroom following her sons’ deaths and never quite seems to be able to overcome her grief. Laila is more pragmatic: she marries Rasheed not despite but because of her parents’ death, which she sees as her only option. The novel seems to promote this kind of perseverance over the immobilization that can stem from suffering. Though the suffering that the characters have experienced might be impossible to undo, there is value and strength to be drawn from their ability to endure.

This is especially the case when the characters choose willingly to suffer. Laila, for instance, willingly submits to beatings by the Taliban for traveling as a woman alone, just so that she has the chance of seeing and spending time with her daughter Aziza at the orphanage. Mariam, of course, chooses to kill Rasheed so as to give Laila a chance of a better life, knowing all the same that she will be convicted and executed by the Taliban as a result. This ability to suffer willingly for the benefit of others is portrayed as something women in particular excel at. From Laila’s horrifically painful childbirth to Mariam’s sacrifice, women endure their own suffering and even add to it themselves.

Suffering and Perseverance ThemeTracker

Suffering and Perseverance Quotes in A Thousand Splendid Suns

She understood then what Nana meant, that a harami was an unwanted thing: that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance.

“It’s our lot in life, Mariam. Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have. Do you understand?”

For the first time, Mariam could hear [Jalil] with Nana’s ears. She could hear so clearly now the insincerity that had always lurked beneath, the hollow, false assurances.

“ One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

“But I’m a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?”

It wasn’t easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid.

“To me, it’s nonsense—and very dangerous nonsense at that—all this talk of I’m Tajik and you’re Pashtun and he’s Hazara and she’s Uzbek. We’re all Afghans, and that’s all that should matter. But when one group rules over the others for so long…There’s contempt. Rivalry. There is. There always has been.”

It was hard to feel, really feel, Mammy’s loss. Hard to summon sorrow, to grieve the deaths of people Laila had never really thought of as alive in the first place. Ahmad and Noor had always been like lore to her. Like characters in a fable. Kings in a history book.

It was Tariq who was real, flesh and blood.

“And that, my young friends, is the story of our country, one invader after another. [...] Macedonians. Sassanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we’re like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.”

There would come a day, in fact, years later, when Laila would no longer bewail his loss. Or not as relentlessly; not nearly. There would come a day when the details of his face would begin to slip from memory’s grip, when overhearing a mother on the street call after her child by Tariq’s name would no longer cut her adrift. She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.

All day, this poem about Kabul has been bouncing around in my head. Saib-e-Tabrizi wrote it back in the seventeenth century, I think. I used to known the whole poem, but all I can remember now is two lines:

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls .’”

The girl was looking back as if waiting for Mariam to pass on some morsel of wisdom, to say something encouraging. But what wisdom did Mariam have to offer? What encouragement? Mariam remembered the day they’d buried Nana and how little comfort she had found when Mullah Faizullah had quoted the Koran for her.

She was remembering the day the man from Panjshir had come to deliver the news of Ahmad’s and Noor’s deaths. She remembered Babi, white-faced, slumping on the couch, and Mammy, her hand flying to her mouth when she heard. Laila had watched Mammy come undone that day and it had scared her, but she hadn’t felt any true sorrow. She hadn’t understood the awfulness of her mother’s loss. Now another stranger bringing news of another death. Now she was the one sitting on the chair. Was this her penalty, then, her punishment for being aloof to her own mother’s suffering?

But, miraculously, something of her former life remained, her last link to the person that she had been before she had become so utterly alone. A part of Tariq still alive inside her, sprouting tiny arms, growing translucent hands. How could she jeopardize the only thing she had left of him, of her old life?

Laila examined Mariam’s drooping cheeks, the eyelids that sagged in tired folds, the deep lines that framed her mouth—she saw these things as though she too were looking at someone for the first time. And, for the first time, it was not an adversary’s face Laila saw but a face of grievances unspoken, burdens gone unprotested, a destiny submitted to and endured.

“Why have you pinned your heart to an old, ugly hag like me?” Mariam would murmur into Aziza’s hair. “Huh? I am nobody, don’t you see? A dehati. What have I got to give you?”

But Aziza only muttered contentedly and dug her face in deeper. And when she did that, Mariam swooned. Her eyes watered. Her heart took flight. And she marveled at how, after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections.

[Mariam] had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry, barren field, out beyond dream and disillusionment. There, the future did not matter. And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.

Laila dropped the spoke because she could not accept what the Mujahideen readily had: that sometimes in war innocent life had to be taken. Her war was against Rasheed. The baby was blameless. And there had been enough killing already. Laila had seen enough killing of innocents caught in the cross fire of enemies.

Mariam regretted her foolish, youthful pride now. She wished now that she had let him in. what would have been the harm to let him in, sit with him, let him say what he’d come to say? He was her father. He’d not been a good father, it was true, but how ordinary his faults seemed now how forgivable, when compared to Rasheed’s malice, or to the brutality and violence that she had seen men inflict on one another.

[Laila] thought of Aziza’s stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.

Though there had been moments of beauty in it. Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it. […] Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami daughter of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

By khaled hosseini, a thousand splendid suns study guide.

Khaled Hosseini 's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns , was written after Hosseini traveled back to his native Afghanistan to examine for himself the nation’s situation in the aftermath of decades of turmoil. In early 2007, Hosseini told Time Magazine about this rationale: "On the one hand, I was hoping I'd got it right, that I didn't screw up [in The Kite Runner ]. On the other hand, what I'd written was so terrible, part of me was kind of hoping that it wasn't quite that bad. The reality was that it was actually worse."

Hosseini had left Afghanistan before the Soviet takeover, and Time suggests that this novel is an act towards his redemption for his family’s choice not to return to the country. Unlike Hosseini's first novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns contains no scenes set in America. Hosseini crafts the story of two strong Afghan women of different ages from different areas whose lives intersect for a while. The novel, which spans Afghan history from before the Soviet war until after Taliban rule, has been said by critics to be even better than the Hosseini's critically acclaimed The Kite Runner. Entertainment Weekly notes that readers from Howard Stern to Laura Bush have been hooked by the novel.

The novel can be divided into four main sections on the basis of subject matter. The first part focuses on the upbringing of Mariam , a child of illegitimate birth who was raised in a small hut outside of the city of Herat. The second section focuses on Laila , who is a generation younger than Mariam. Laila is born in Kabul to two parents, and her father hopes that she will contribute to Afghan society. The third part follows the intersection of Mariam's and Laila's lives. In the last part, they travel their separate paths.

Time reports that Hosseini's books have not yet been published in Afghanistan. Time suggests that readers in Afghanistan have too little time and money to spend on novels and that Hosseini’s style may seem too “confessional” (despite the fact that the novel is not autobiographical). Readers may well observe that Hosseini's writing seems American in style because of its open confrontation of difficult moral, social, and political issues.

In this context, Hosseini told Time that "I guess I misunderstood what the role of fiction was. Because I never thought it was about writing things that everybody agrees about, that make everybody feel warm and fuzzy inside. I guess it's my Western sensibility, now that I've lived here for so long, that I feel like these are things we should talk about."

A Thousand Splendid Suns Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Thousand Splendid Suns is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What do you notice about the landscape?

According to the text, the landscape is harsh and unforgiving.... "bleak and pitiless."

Who has built the classroom at the renovated orphanage in Chapter 51?

Tariq, Laila and Zaman to refurbish the facility.

What dream does Laila have in chapter 26? When she recalls the dream later in the same chapter, why is it ironic and significant?

In the dream, she and Tariq are sitting on a beach and she tells him to listen to the singing sand. The sand sings beautiful notes: "groaning" and "mewling," Hosseini suggests the sand, in its shifting, sings foreshadowing strife that lies ahead...

Study Guide for A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is Khaled Hosseini's second novel. Like his first novel, The Kite Runner, it is set in Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns study guide contains a biography of Khaled Hosseini, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Thousand Splendid Suns
• A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary
• Character List

Essays for A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second novel written by Khaled Hosseini. A Thousand Splendid Suns essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

• The Lasting Effects of Abuse in Miriam’s Life
• Strength Within Struggle
• Oppression of Women: A Comparison of A Thousand Splendid Suns and Tess of the D'Ubervilles
• The Sun Shines on Olympus
• Comparing "Osama" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Lesson Plan for A Thousand Splendid Suns

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to A Thousand Splendid Suns
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• A Thousand Splendid Suns Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for A Thousand Splendid Suns

• Introduction

A Thousand Splendid Suns

70 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-40

Chapters 41-45

Chapters 46-51

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

What is the role of childhood in the novel? To what extent are Laila and Mariam’s adulthood experiences shaped by their childhoods?

To what extent do the changes in Afghanistan’s political regimes affect Mariam and Laila?

“‘Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman,’” Nana tells Mariam in her girlhood (7). How do Mariam and Laila encounter misogyny, and how successful are they in confronting it?

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A Thousand Splendid Suns Analysis Essay

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini. The story follows the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila, who are born in Afghanistan in different centuries but share a similar fate. Despite their differences, the two women develop a strong bond and support each other through the many trials and tribulations they face. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a powerful tale of love, loss, and hope in the face of adversity.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American author who was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. He moved to the United States in 1980 and became a doctor. Hosseini is best known for his novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Both books are set in Afghanistan and explore the themes of war, exile, and family. A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007 and was a New York Times bestseller. The novel was also nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an emotionally powerful novel that tells the story of two women who are forced to confront the many challenges of life in Afghanistan. Mariam and Laila share a strong bond that helps them survive the many trials they face. The book is a testament to the power of friendship and love in the face of adversity.

A veil of silence descended on the room. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel by Khaled Hosseini that tells the story of two women, Mariam and Laila, who are forced to marry a man they do not love. The novel follows their lives as they are subjected to abuse and violence at the hands of their husband.

Despite the horrors they experience, Mariam and Laila find moments of happiness and friendship. The novel explores themes of love, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity. A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007 and was adapted into a Broadway play in 2013. The novel has been translated into over forty languages.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American author who has written two other novels, The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. He moved to the United States in 1980 and became a citizen in 1992. A Thousand Splendid Suns was highly acclaimed by critics and won several awards, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Novel and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

When A Thousand Splendid Suns was published, it became an instant bestseller. The book tells the story of two women who are forced to marry a man they do not love. Mariam is from an upper-class family, while Laila is from a lower-class family. Rasheed is a warlord who has killed many people. Mariam and Laila are both subjected to abuse and violence at the hands of their husband.

Despite the horrors they experience, Mariam and Laila find moments of happiness and friendship. The novel explores themes of love, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity. A Thousand Splendid Suns was highly acclaimed by critics and won several awards, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Novel and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the focus is on women’s rights, particularly in the Taliban era. Mariam and Laila live through regimes that are not horrible. Despite her father’s family forcing her to marry Rasheed, Mariam has the final say as to whether she will accept his proposal.

Laila’s family is much more traditional, but her mother does not lose her identity after marriage. Both women must deal with Rasheed’s increasing control and violence as the Taliban takes over Afghanistan.

Despite the challenges they face, Mariam and Laila are both strong women. They find ways to help each other and to resist Rasheed’s abuse. In the end, they are able to escape his grasp and create a better life for themselves and their children. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an important reminder that women have always been strong and capable, even in the most difficult circumstances.

It is also a testament to the power of friendship and love between women. Khaled Hosseini has written a beautiful and moving story that will stay with readers for a long time. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an excellent novel and deserves all the accolades it has received.

The women in this group were—what was Rasheed’s term? —”modern.” Yes, modern Afghan women married to modern Afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and no head coverings.

They had attended universities in America and Europe. They worked as doctors and lawyers and wore pantsuits to the office. A thousand splendid suns Mariam born illegitimate in a small village in rural Afghanistan, Mariam has spent her entire life as a virtual prisoner of her conservative father.

When she is not under lock and key, she is busy laboring in the family fields. So when an opportunity arises for her to escape—to go live with her mother’s sister in Kabul—she takes it, even though she must leave behind her beloved young son.

When Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in 2007, it became an instant bestseller, spending over two years on the New York Times Best Seller list. A rich and complex story set against the backdrop of Afghan history, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the tale of two women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives are forever changed by the Taliban’s rise to power in the 1990s.

The story begins in the late 1970s, with Mariam living as a virtual prisoner of her father. A product of an illegitimate union, she has always been treated poorly by her father and other members of her village. So when she is offered an opportunity to escape to Kabul and live with her mother’s sister, she takes it, even though she must leave her young son behind.

Laila is born into a more fortunate family in Kabul, but the rug is pulled out from under her when the Soviets invade and occupy Afghanistan. Her father is executed, her brother disappears, and her mother flees to Pakistan, leaving Laila behind to fend for herself.

The two women eventually cross paths in Kabul, where they are both living as refugees during the Taliban’s rule. Mariam has been working as a servant for a man named Rasheed, while Laila has been selling flowers on the street to support herself and her young daughter. The two women become unlikely friends, despite the many differences in their backgrounds.

However, the Taliban’s rule is a difficult time for women, and both Mariam and Laila must face increasing restrictions and dangers. Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed, an abusive man who takes pleasure in controlling and humiliating her. Laila is nearly raped by a member of the Taliban, but is saved by her former fiancé, Karim.

As the years go by and the Taliban’s grip on Afghanistan Tightens, Mariam and Laila are increasingly desperate and frustrated. Finally, they find an opportunity to escape—but it comes at a high price.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Thousand Splendid Suns — The power and struggle of women in A thousand splendid suns

The Power and Struggle of Women in a Thousand Splendid Suns

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A* 12 'Tess of the D'Ubervilles' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' Essay Plans

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

31 January 2021

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A set of twelve essay plans comparing Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Ubervilles’ and Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. Each essay plan includes six points with complimentary quotes and a relevant context section. Perfect for A-level revision for Pearson Edexcel’s English Literature Prose paper, Women and Society theme. I achieved an A* in this A-Level.

Essay Themes include: Courage/Sacrifice Loss Violence and Fear Powerlessness Guilt/Shame Sisterhood/Loyalty Motherhood Journeys/Locations Love Religion Patriarchy Patriotism

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Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an outstanding novel published in 2007, written by Khalid Hosseini, who is known as a three-bestselling author. The subjects of this novel reflect on and have similarities in conflict like his previous book, The Kite Runner written in 2003. Khalid narrates the different aspects of afghan woman before and during the soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban.

The time span of the novel from when published, goes back approximately thirty-seven years. Hosseini tells the story of the obedience in the common fate to become co-wives of the same misogynistic, brutal man. He explains the one-sided story of the real-life characters that were brought up in the upheavals of the last forty years. It is a manifestation of the struggle under harsh sociopolitical and economic circumstances which highlights the labeling and diverse issues the afghan woman was once born into. The importance of endurance is not to remain suppressed, instead to stand up against oppressors under harsh conditions.

The book begins with an unhappy little girl named Mariam who is considered a harami, or to American’s, what we would call a bastard child. She was an ethnic Tajik born in Heart in 1959. This little harami lives in an outside hut built by her father Jalil who rejects her in many ways. A few ways would be how he keeps her away from her nine brothers and sisters and only visits her once a week. Her mother Nana was a servant in the household of Jalil. He was a rich and powerful man who took advantage of her and wanted nothing more. Mariam was loved in a very crucial way. Her mother made it known she was the symbol of their shame. Mariam knew she did not have the acceptance of her family and that she never would. Through gritted teeth her mother once told her, “You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I endured, an heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami.” All this because she broke a treasured heirloom once and her mother never forgave her for it.

After her mother’s death Mariam is married off at the age of fifteen to a shoemaker named Rasheed, who was an ethnic Pashtun. Rasheed was a very stern and aggressive man and he emotionally, mentally, and physically abused Mariam. Some days he seemed to have love and endured her, but only if she did as she was told. She could do nothing but take this treatment, though she feared him in every way. Strangely, she felt some connection to him since he was the only person she had, there was no other choice then to love him as her husband. Her mother always told her, “It’s our lot in life, woman like us, we endure and it’s all we have.” The warnings of her mother were the validity of every afghan woman’s life. Soon the story takes a sad turn and the suicide of Nana, Mariam’s mother, is a depiction of the way women are positioned in the afghan society. Women in these times were being blamed for everything with no way out, surviving only on their great strength to endure the inequalities and injustice-ness of their lives.

Mariam and Rasheed lived the life of a semi-normal married couple. They went on walks, he showed her the town, and bought her gifts from time to time. Mariam soon became pregnant and they shared the joy together. Mariam finally felt like she had a purpose and she told herself that her unborn child was the reason she was brought into this world. Not to long into her pregnancy Mariam lost the baby. Once this happened, her and Rasheed disconnected and shut down. They did not speak often, nor did they connect in the little ways they had before. Their home became an unhappy home and Mariam no longer found purpose in her life. For now, she was empty and alone once again.

Over the years Rasheed’s hatred against Mariam grew, no matter what she did to please him it was never enough. Mariam awoke every day to do her wifely duties and made sure she did nothing to upset Rasheed, but he no longer looked at her as his wife. She could not give him what he truly wanted which was children, he viewed her as a failure. She had failed him seven times. After four years of marriage, Mariam was now just a burden and he constantly yelled and ridiculed Mariam. He even made her chew on pebbles until she drew blood and her molars broke because she couldn’t cook rice his way. This was his way of describing how he felt about her cooking. He had no mercy for her and she was nothing but a harami once again.

In these chapters, Hossieni describes the position of a woman in the afghan society as the one’s to reproduce and take care of their husband with very little say. The domestic abuse is not due to lack of abiding by woman to the informal laws and traditions; rather it is the men’s privilege to blame woman for anything irrespective of woman’s fault. At one point in the beginning of the novel, Nana explains to Mariam the future code of conduct, “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.” I believe Hossieni wrote this to illustrate the way woman are being blamed and treated despite their pure innocence. The society has laws and customs that prohibits woman from arguing with men, let alone the right to end unequal treatment.

Through out the book Hosseini also told the story of another young girl named Laila, an ethnic Pashtun who was born in 1978. Her upbringings weren’t quite the same as Mariam. Laila’s father was university educated and was a teacher. Her faher was very fond of her and they had a close relationship with her, unlike Mariam and her father. Laila and her mother’s relationship was not the best. Her mother did not mistreat her, however she just did not connect very well with her. Through out the chapter’s of Laila’s life, a close relationship blooms between her and her best friend Tariq, an ethnic Pashtun born in 1976. Laila was in love with Tariq, but even though she wanted him to be her husband one day, her family refused because he had a fake leg and they looked poorly at him for being handicap.

Laila’s life was lived through the war and one day during the war her town was wiped out. When this happened most of her family and friends were assumed dead, this including the life of her beloved Tariq. Soon after this, Mariam and Laila’s lives became worse when Rasheed takes Laila as his second wife. Even though Laila and Mariam were unhappy about the marriage they both knew neither of them had a say. Later on Laila shared secrets with Mariam about her pregnancy with her beloved Tariq who was assumed dead. Even though the girls were unpleased about the sharing of the household they soon softened once the baby was born. Since Rasheed was uncomfortable that the baby was not a boy, Mariam and Laila raised the baby with no help from Rasheed. This behavior from a husband was normal in the life for an afghan mother that could not birth a son.

Over the years Mariam and Laila live their lives as Rasheed’s wives, multiple times they try to escape their miserable life. In the afghan society when a woman is seen traveling alone it is a red flag. It is not allowed and they in most parts can be risking their lives. When the women were caught the first time, it was very scary for them as it would be for any afghan woman. Rasheed was not happy and punished both of them harshly for their misbehavior.

A little later Tariq, who Laila thought was dead showed up and in that moment changes everything for Laila. Rasheed found out the child was not his and makes Laila give her up. Laila already hated her life and wanted to escape, now this just gave her more will to leave. Once again Laila and Mariam risk their lives trying to escape with Tariq’s help and try to get Laila and Tariq’s child back. During this, they are caught once again and Mariam risks her own life for the others to escape and is given a public execution. Mariam believed she finally had a purpose once again and this was to help her new friends, known now as family, to live the life that they deserved and always wanted. She wanted no more suffering for neither her or them.

Mariam’s sacrifice was not just for her sake nor her friends, it was to represent the strength for every afghan woman in this society. Hosseini identifies the inequalities within the society and narrates the story of the two young woman who are positioned unequally and treated very poorly. These women live in a country that is ruined by war and religious-political oppression. Women in Afghan society are deprived of many rights and freedoms, especially in the after math of the Mujahideen movement. At one point Hosseini writes, “In a few years, this little girl will be a woman…turbulence that washed over her” (Hosseini 355). The story of Laila and Mariam has proved the endurance of woman. The subsequent public execution of Mariam is reflective of the way woman in most suppressed societies of the world struggle to achieve individual and collective freedom.

The story “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, is not only a narration based on true life situations, instead provides a deeper understanding of the struggle of an afghan woman. In this novel, both religious and political dimensions of the afghan society is depicted. Hosseini greatly emphasizes the role of women providing women with strength to endure and to make it through life with the lack of their fundamental rights as human beings. Though the efforts are not always significant, the endurance of Mariam and Laila, along with the supportive relationship they received from one another gives us hope. Coupled with progressive thinking and women holding up women in strife, there is light at the end of the tunnel for women in these societies.

Works Cited

• Hosseini, Khalid. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Riverhead Books, May 22, 2007.
• Wikipedia contributors. ‘Khaled Hosseini.’ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Sep. 2018. Web. 25 Sep. 2018.

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"Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns," supremestudy.com , 06-May-2021. [Online]. Available: https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ . [Accessed: 21-Jun-2024]

supremestudy.com. (2021). Literary Analysis: a Thousand Splendid Suns . [Online]. Available at: https://supremestudy.com/literary-analysis-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ [Accessed: 21-Jun-2024]

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a thousand splendid suns essay

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Tania shaikh

This study examines the status of women in the Islamic world, particularly Afghanistan with reference to Khalid Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ through application of feminist literary criticism. Through close reading analysis method, the qualitative study intends to unfold different forms of gender discrimination and the response of women to such oppression. The study uncovers the fact that though Islam has assured the rights of women, but still Islamic world is juggling in gender politics. The findings of the study reveal that women, within the aforementioned novel, are represented as performing stereotypical traditional roles such as caretakers and mothers. They are subjected to different forms of gender subjugation as physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse, forceful marriages, preference to have sons, ill healthcare facilities, marginalization from education and limited mobility. The novel also shows women’s responses to such inequalities; acceptance and resista...

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This paper aims to highlight the conditions of Afghan women in Khaled Hosseini's two novels, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed in which women are seen inferior in a male dominated society. The socio-religious and socio-political conditions of Afghan women led them totally illiterate, poor, inferior, marginalized, and oppressed in post-Soviet era. It also aims to depict the status of Afghan women and their struggles towards the gender discrimination and violence through Hosseini's two selected novels. Previous studies and author's novels were read for data collection and thematic analysis technique was applied in this study to achieve the goals. As a result, in the former novel, Mariam, Laila, and Nana under the male-dominated system suffered some tragic events such as abusive behavior of husband; patriarchy; and loss of freedom. Similarly, in the later novel, Parwana, Pari, and Nila both physically and mentally suffered, viz., women's earlier marriage; selling women for dowry; and women's poor economy.

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Women, the 48.45% of total Afghan population usually termed and referred as the most victimized clan of Afghanistan. It is engendered notion and perceived as reality around the world. Undoubtedly, Mujahidin and later the Taliban have made the situation miserable for women. But, comparatively, women in Afghanistan did not face as many cruelties earlier during Taliban regime as they suffering today. They were secured, honored and allowed to participate equally in all spheres of life ranging from socio-economic to religio-political during the reign of Taliban. Majority of the religious elite among the Muslims interprets the religious teachings according to its own requirements to assure legitimacy particularly in the context of women. Same is the case with Afghanistan, which, being the buffer state, had been remained epicenter for political interests of world powers and who used its soil to expand or legitimize their authority, violate human rights specifically women as wartime strateg...

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This essay is intended to raise the issues writen by Afghanistan diasporic writers. This could be undenial to know the fact many writings written by Afghanistan diasporic writers described about women's repression. How they potray this crucial issue mainly based on the facts happened in Afghanistan. Some writers portrayed how the woman became the main victims reflected in their writings, such as Khaled Hosseini and Latifa. Their novels becomes the main data for this research. The qualitative method and the theory of gender relation and Islamic feminism is used to discuss the analysis. Through the main character, Mariam, in A Thousand Splendid Suns and Latifa in My Forbidden Face, their effort to release from the repression caused by gender relation and local culture of Afghanistan is voiced. The result of this study showed that the women characters are positioned to be the representative of the Afghanistan women roundly. They spoke up to defense their freedom and right to have the role in public domain.

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After twenty years of endeavor to equalize women's rights in the half-dead democracy of Afghanistan, the dream of equal rights for women in the Afghan society was destroyed by the arrival of the Taliban group. This group and its supporters have committed countless crimes during their rule in Afghanistan. In 2021, when this group comes to power, the women's experience of two decades ago will be repeated, and women will be deprived of their most basic rights. Like two decades ago, the Taliban removed the girls from social life by closing schools and imprisoning them at home. The recent actions of the Taliban against women include the following areas: exclusion from education, exclusion from work, exclusion from political activities, and restriction of activities in the public space, all these decrees and rulings against women's activities are from the source of Sharath and religious fatwas. The Taliban has been issued. In this research, we are looking at the influencing factors of the Taliban's thoughts on restricting the rights of women in the society of Afghanistan. In this research, we have compared the differences between the religious thoughts and beliefs of the Taliban, which are adapted from Islamic rulings, and the religious fatwa of the Taliban leaders with Islamic rulings.

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