Discrimination; the unjust treatment of categories of people especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Author Khaled Hosseini wrote a story of two Afghan women from two very different backgrounds, one very abusive, the other supportive. The women are brought together by the turmoil in Afghanistan brought by war. Hosseini proves that the systematic discrimination and victimization of women is unjust and leads to demise through the use of characterization, plot, and setting.
Hosseini develops the characters in a such a way that gives the readers insight into what is really happening. Abusive husband Rasheed states, “Now you know what you’ve given me in this marriage. Bad food and nothing else” (104). Protagonist Mariam is doing everything she can to try and please Rasheed, but he responds very negatively because she can’t have a baby. This negativity is highly
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Rasheed states to Mariam, “Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s busines only” (70). Mariam not standing against this statement made by Rasheed shows how normal it is in this area for women to be treated like they are an item. It is tradition in this area of the world for women to be under complete control of men. Hosseini using the setting to reveal this helps show how much of an issue this is. Rasheed reassures Laila that Mariam won’t care that he sold her wedding bands in order to buy Laila’s engagement ring. But Laila is uncomfortable with it as Rasheed insists (217). Wedding bands are sacred in this region of the world and it is very insulting to sell or lose them. Rasheed doing this to Mariam is very disrespectful. If it didn't happen in this particular setting, it wouldn't have had as big of an impact. Without the setting, the events that take place would have been very out of place and would have take away from the theme. Hosseini is very strategic with the choices he
Rasheed cared for his honour and reputation so much that he did not take into consideration the action that Mariam and Laila did, if it was something he believed would bring shame to his reputation he would often physically punish them. Shortly after Mariam marries Rasheed, he says, “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?” (Hosseini 63). Rasheed begins to foreshadow his urge to control. Rasheed tells Mariam to start wearing a burqa from now on because he believes if she does not that is culturally wrong. Rasheed shows how honour is more important than anything. Similarly, in the documentary “Honour Killing” Shafia wanted to have complete control over his daughter's interactions. When Shafia was unable to control his daughter’s and realized that they are acting in a way that is dishonoring him he murders them. Shafia cared so much for his honor that he failed to realize that what his daughters did was socially acceptable in Canadian culture as said by their uncle. In both stories, the men saw control as a
Social injustice is revealed throughout the novel and Hosseini really goes in depth and indulges the reader by portraying every aspect of the life of women in Afghanistan at the time period. He also reveals most of the social injustice women still have to deal with today. This novel is based on two young women and the social injustices they face because of their gender. Gender inequality was very common in Afghanistan
Rasheed tries to convince Mariam that the only way to keep Laila safe is by marrying her. He ends up hiring a man named Abdul Harif to tell Laila that he had met the love of her life, Tariq, in the hospital and that he had died. Laila is told this right when she finds out that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child. Rasheed had hired Abdul Harif to tell Laila this because he wanted to get Laila to marry her. When Rasheed brings up marriage to Laila, she jumps on board right away, and falls into Rasheed’s trap. After Rasheed and Laila get married, he treats her like a queen. He becomes very protective of Laila. Almost all his attention is spent on her, and in a sense, forgets that he is even married to Mariam. But him acting affectionate and caring does not last very long. When Laila gives birth to a baby girl, named Aziza, Rasheed starts to treat Laila how he treated Mariam when she could not successfully carry a child full term. Again, Rasheed ends up not getting what he wants, and therefore he turns onto Laila. The abuse, both verbal and physical, starts to get worse in the household. A particular situation that displays just how violent the abuse in their household can get is when he locks Laila and Aziza in their room, and Mariam in the shed because they tried running away from Rasheed and the abuse. He leaves them without water or food, and it ends up almost killing Aziza. This is where Rasheed falls into the paradox of power again. “ ...the 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli insisted that compassion got in the way of eminence. If a leader has to choose between being feared or being loved, Machiavelli insisted that the leader should always go with fear. Love is overrated” (Lehrer The Power Trip). Rasheed would rather have his own family be completely afraid of him and almost
From start to finish, one could see how much Mariam values Laila, Aziza, and their friendship. The first example is when Mariam vows to help Laila while they are in the hospital for Laila’s unborn child: “I’ll get you seen, Laila jo. I promise” (287). This simple promise is a deep portrayal of Mariam’s desire to help Laila find a doctor and deliver her baby. Additionally, one can see Mariam’s love for Laila when she protects her from Rasheed’s grip of death, “‘Rasheed.’ He looked up. Mariam swung. She hit him across the temple. The blow knocked him off Laila” (348). Rasheed was going to kill Laila, but Mariam steps in and knocks him off of her with a shovel to save her life. Mariam forms a tight-knit bond with Laila, and when Hosseini includes their relationship, one can see how Mariam values Laila enough to kill another man. The author also describes their relationship after Mariam and Laila discuss plans for leaving: “When they do, they’ll find you as guilty as me. Tariq too. I won’t have the two of you living on the run like fugitives.” … “Laila crawled to her and again put her head on Mariam’s lap. She remembered all the afternoons they’d spent together, braiding each other’s hair, Mariam listening patiently to her random thoughts and ordinary stories with an air of gratitude, with the expression of a person to whom a unique and coveted privilege had been extended” (358). The love Mariam has for
Rasheed was the man in the relationship and Mariam was the typical wife that did her wifely duties and stayed home while he goes and works and provides money. He treats her as if she’s worthless and means nothing to the world. When he eats he doesn’t look at her or speak to her, he is demanding, and tells her how worthless and uneducated she is. This then leads to him becoming abusive punching her, slapping her, kicking her, speaking rudely to her, he did this to damage her. A lot of this occurs because Mariam can get have his son and she is also considered a harami. Everything she does infuriates him and blames all the issues on her. She constantly tried to avoid making mistakes and did everything to his liking, but he always found a way to abuse her and blame it on her. Rasheed did not care about anything but himself he abided by the patriarchal stereotype ,which is being the dominant one throughout society and making women inferior. Mariam felt powerless and fearful. She was a victim of abuse and oppression. She married a man that said everything he did was normal in a relationship. Even though Mariam was in a violent marriage she became a strong women and soon she overcomed these
Hosseni’s application of spousal abuse in the novel inflicts a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for Mariam and Laila. Mariam and Laila are victims of abuse in a patriarchal society. In their polygamous relationship with their husband Rasheed, he oppresses them emotionally, verbally, and physically. After Laila is brought back from the police, Rasheed promises that if she ever tries to run away again, he “swear[s] on the Profit’s name [he] will find [her]”(272) and if he does, he will
The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is set in Afghanistan. It covers about a 50 year time period from the 1950’s to the mid 2000’s. Hosseini uses allusions to actual Afghani events to depict the ever changing liberties that the women of Afghanistan endure with the lack of stability in Afghanistan’s government.
The novel a “Thousand Splendid Suns” tells the tale of a oppressing story about two women by the name of Mariam and Lila who undergo tremendous difficulties firstly because they belong to the discriminated gender women. These two women are surrounded by war, domestic abuse, family losses and violence. Hosseini through the use of various imagery and symbolism unearths the plight of women. Novel the "A Thousand Splendid Suns" set against the backdrop of Afghanistan’s recent history it narrates the tale of two woman who were born decades apart but are pitted against each other and brought together through a series of extremely tragic events. Mariam, the illegitimate child of a wealthy businessman from Heart who lacked the courage to marry Nana, Mariam’s mother after having dishonored her. After the suicide of Nana, Jalil is compelled by circumstances to refuge to Mariam. Mariam resents to the limited place in her father's life. On her arrival in Jalil’s house she is exposed to the realities of life and she realizes that her father's place is her life has completely turned since his other wives considered her to be a burden then an asset. She is discriminated at every juncture. She is further tormented for her illegitimacy as coming under pressure from this wives, Jalil decides to get this 15 years old daughter Mariam married to a brutish widowed cobbler 30 years her senior. Pitted against the vagaries of life once again Mariam sees her condition being static. Her married life is filled with fear and her repeated miscarriages dishearten Rasheed and he feels that he shall never be able to father a son. Seeing his hopes being destroyed of fathering a son he subjects Mariam to regular and frequent cruel acts of physical punishment. He ...
Overall discrimination is an awful thing. It is like a STD, it can be passed from parent to child, or someone can become infected if you don’t watch out. Discrimination is also like the plague. It sweeps over a large amount of people, infecting most, and most don’t survive. Though today much of the discrimination is gone, just like the plague, but it is still there. Unfortunately for some people, they have to deal with people discrimination from others. Whether it be discrimination of one’s race, age, disability, or gender. Discrimination has numerous damaging effects to someone’s life. In Of Mice and Men the unlucky victims of discrimination also suffer from the same effects. They allow for people to have control of them and walk all over them. Discrimination is like a fire... It hurts.
Another thing about discrimination is how people use stereotypes –the way people look- against them, such as certain religions have to wear a certain type of clothing e.g. turbans or burkas. These religions maybe Sikhs or Muslims and although most of them are perfectly harmless, a lot of people are scared of them due to the scares of the Taliban and bombings but these are all stereotypes put upon them by the societey. When in fact they are exactly like us; they are all human beings that deserve respect. And, although there will be bad people among them there are bad people everywhere so what’s the difference?
Discrimination based on race, gender, class, and culture has been reoccurring since the beginning stages of mankind. Discrimination can derive from several different factors, whether sexual identity, race, gender, social-class as this paper demonstrated. The purpose of the paper was to discuss how discrimination was locked to institutional power between 1600s and 1990s, but even today discrimination is very prevalent and will continue to be, as the criminal justice system and the war on drugs acts as a form of discrimination towards people of color. Discrimination based on race, sexual ideologies and practices, and social class seem to still be very prevalent, while discrimination based on gender seems to have left the publics view.
“Meanings justify the differential treatment that groups receive as some groups are deemed more worthy of, and eligible to receive, society’s valued resources than others. It now serves as a way to treat people unfairly” (Smith, Racilization). Discrimination perpetuates race and leads to racial inequality. Discrimination can be categorical or statistical. Categorical discrimination is unfair treatment from the discriminator of people from a particular social group because he believes this discrimination is mandatory for acceptance into his social group. Statistical discrimination is unfair treatment of an individual because of the preconceived notions that are prevalent surrounding the social group they take part
Both Laila, the lucky girl with breathtaking beauty, whose luck suddenly vanishes, and Mariam, the unlucky and illegitimate daughter, whose luck goes from bad to terribly worse, become dynamic and complex characters. This transformation is brought about by the gradual revealing of Hosseini’s motivation. In fact, Hoesseini is evidently motivated to reveal the truth, and let the emotional and physical realities of Afghani women’s lives be known to the
One thing that has been pointed out by Hosseini is that the family plays a huge role. In the Arab culture family is an integral aspect. In most countries, men and women have very separate roles in the family. The man is generally expected to take care of the family financially this has been shown especially with Mariam and the relationship to her husband. Yet it has also been portrayed with Laila as well who has faced similar problems. Such as Mariam being abused by her husband this has a lot to do with the norms of the Arab culture and how men are under the impression that treating women like this is
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. In today’s society, men are being discriminated against through the media, suffering from parental custody discrimination, being discriminated against in the courtroom and even for their choice of career. BBC reporter David Benatar said that, “the second sexism is that across the world men are more likely to be conscripted into the military, be victims of violence, lose custody of their children and take their own lives” (Castella, 2012). Even the way men are being portrayed on television and in film plays a big part in how they are treated in real life situations.