Examples Of Justice In A Thousand Splendid Suns

Justice and perception are words that often overlap. What is seen as justice by one generation can be seen a hateful act of violence by the next. The point is, justice can only truly be construed by the one perceived as the victim. In A Thousand Splendid Suns a picture of sorrow and desperation that grasp Afghanistan is painted as the backdrop to the story. Mariam, a harami, was taught by her mother to endure. That her sole purpose as a woman was to endure the suffering that a man causes. Then, one day, she takes justice into her own hands and kills her abusive husband to save her sister wife and only true companion in her life. This crime leads to her execution; even her final moments a sense of purpose fulfills her because she knows that by sacrificing her life and saving Laila’s, Laila can start anew.

With a father that won’t accept her as kin, a mother whose suicide she blames herself for, and a husband that views her as property, Mariam feels isolated in every sense of the term.

In Part three, a shift in this isolation occurs when Laila becomes a part of her life. An epiphany occurs where Mariam starts to realize the injustices that surround her; The amount of her life wasted with Rasheed, the physical and emotional abused endured from him, and the injustices she knows Laila is about to endure.Then as she starts to bond with Laila, Mariam feels a sense of purpose; the kids look up to her as a secondary mother figure and she has Laila as a companion. So when Rasheed had the intent to kill Laila, Mariam had to act. She has taken justice into her own hands by responding to Rasheed’s physical injustice and the injustices of equality rights towards women at the hands of the Taliban. She later tells Laila that she was simply “acting like a

mother”.
Mariam gains an understanding of justice through the ultimate sacrifice; her life. She understands that with justice comes sacrifice and this is reflected through her dialogue with Laila. A crucial element of understanding what justice entails arises when Mariam refuses to have witnesses at her court hearing. She knows that there is no escaping the necessities of what justice demands and she doesn’t try to escape her fate, she endures. Khaled Hosseini paints an image in the readers head of Mariam’s final moments before her execution; she is devastated and scared for her sacrifice but she is hopeful and optimistic that this will help justice prevail and that Laila and her kids can get a second chance at life. This is why she is so highly admired by the women at Walayat’s women prison.
Mariam’s level of success in seeking justice depends on if you see the glass as half full or half empty. In the courtroom the judge and officer pitied her for her noble purpose; this is an important element because it is unusual for a man to support a woman in a society that views women as second class citizens. Also, the women in prison idolize her for her efforts, this shows another degree of success. Lastly, Laila names her unborn child after Mariam which testifies that Mariam’s contribution to justice was appreciated and worth the ultimate sacrifice. However, on a greater scale, her efforts didn’t fix Afghanistan’s corrupt government and it didn't waver the Taliban’s injustice with equality towards women. I choose to look at the glass as half full, although she didn’t have an effect on a large scale, it was a step in the right direction, which I think can be seen as successful. This is significant to the work, as a whole, because the underlying message is that justice can be present through nurturing and restoration, I think if we were all a little more like Mariam, and accepted the cost of justice so that it could prevail for the greater good, that justice can reappear in a society that it has been absent.