Critical Analysis Of A Thousand Splendid Suns

Vaxi Chokshi

Mrs. Sweeney

Acad English IV

29th April 2014

The Fight for their Right

Afghan women gained high visibility all over the world after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Literary works focusing on Afghan culture began to be published shortly. They portrayed Afghan women as passive victims of war and violence. One such novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, portrays the women of the Afghan culture. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny as seen from the perspectives of two women. Its the soul-stirring connection between two victimized women that gives this novel its battered heart. More specifically, the novel utilizes feminist criticism to prove that Afghan men utilize, exploit, and avail their women

The History of Afghanistan has been of political instability, war, infrastructure devastation, and limiting political regimes, says Azam Kazemiyan in his book. The streets were littered with glass, bodies and crumpled chunks of metal. The author describes the war-torn conditions of Afghanistan when he says,“There was looting, murder, and, increasingly, rape, which was used to intimidate civilians and reward militiamen. Mariam heard of women who were killing themselves out of fear of being raped, and of men who in the name of honor, would kill their wives or daughters if they’d been raped by the militia,” (Hosseini, 247). This illustrates how women had no control over their own lives. Instead of getting justice for being raped, the fathers and husbands killed them. The militiamen misused their power to rape women and exercised their dominance over women.

The condition of women in Afghanistan has been miserable since the start of Soviet Afghanistan...

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...f Mariam just injured Rasheed, he would have certainly killed Laila. Mariam could neither just stand there nor watch Rasheed kill Laila. The only choice left with her was killing him. In the case of Laila and Mariam domination and gender, exploitation is considered an appalling reason for social turmoil and triggering this type of fundamental social change comes when one cannot bare control any longer.

Khaled Hosseini’s book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” portrays how women are dehumanized. More specifically, this book portrays how Afghan men utilize, exploit, and avail their women.Afghan women are denied their rights. Men are considered higher than women by their gender role.The pressure they face to abide by societal norms strains their individual lives and relationships. The narrator uses the feminist lens to describe social constraints on women within the novel.