Moral Values In A Thousand Splendid Suns

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the cultural aspects of the Middle East shaped the psychological and moral traits in Mariam’s husband, Rasheed. He beats her, and holds her to a different moral code than he holds himself. The way he acts, justified by the culture he lives in, helps to shed light on the meaning of the work, that tradition does not justify evil.
Mariam’s husband married her when he was forty and she was fifteen, he later marries a sixteen year old, when he is in his sixties. Rasheed beats Mariam because she can’t have children, and makes her wear a burqa anytime she leaves the house, which isn’t often because Rasheed will not take her anywhere. Rasheed views the beatings of his wives as justified because they anger

him, and Islamic culture at the time allowed men to do as they pleased with their wives. Rasheed’s moral traits were affected because of where he lived, from having two wives at the same time, to being angry and hypercritical, he felt absolved of guilt, almost merciful, because anytime he wanted to, he could have just killed his wives without consequences.
This moral warping illuminates the novel’s idea that tradition does not justify the evils of man. These events: men beating their wives, lording over them, controlling every aspect of their lives, had gone on for so many generations, it was seen as good, and a man’s duty. Conversely, any man who dared to treat his wife as an equal was viewed, by his culture, as weak and cowardly. The old practice, the tradition, was evil, and yet it was called righteous by man. How did men decide that treating another human being lesser than an animal was anything other than vicious?
The culture of the Middle East created an angry and callous man, who went to bed each night with a guilt free conscience, despite being what many would consider evil. Accepting traditions of the past allowed Rasheed to rule, but in the end, that did not justify him, or those that believed and acted the way he did. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, sheds light on the idea that traditions may not always be the best pattern for one’s behavior.