Women In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and war continuously went on, many women faced hardships too hard to cope with. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, two incredibly strong women Mariam and Laila face many struggles such as harsh ruling, abusive husband and a war that seems never to end. No matter the hardships the women are obliged to endure and survive. Endurance takes strength, willpower and courage to endure a life with little freedom and stability in one’s world.

Strength is a fundamental aspect in endurance. There was a time in Mariam and Rasheed’s marriage when Mariam finally got pregnant but unfortunately lost the baby and seven other times miscarried. The first time it was hard on her and when she asked her husband

Rasheed to help her bury the body, he refused. “ She patted the dirt with the back of the shovel. She squatted by the mound, closed her eyes. Give sustenance, Allah. Give sustenance to me”(Hosseini 96). She didn’t over grieve like some mothers would, she had strength and asked Allah for support. Leila, Rasheed’s second wife, too had strength when she lost all her family and the person she loved most. When the rocket hit her home and killed her parents, she found herself at Mariam and Rasheed’s house under their care. It was unlawful to live an unmarried woman with a married man and she had to find strength to accept Rasheed’s offer to marry him. That was also because she was pregnant and the baby and her needed support.“ He can have it now, the girl said. My answer is yes”(Hosseini 216). Laila could've said no, but she knew that she had too because that was the only way to protect the baby.
It takes willpower to endure. Mariam had done a gruesome deed when she murdered her husband but she had willpower to pay for her crime and turn in to the Taliban. “It isn’t right that I run. I can’t. Even if they never catch us I’ll never escape your son’s grief” (358). Mariam isn’t willing to take the risk, she is determined to do exactly what she thinks is right. Equally, Laila had willpower just as much. Leaving her own country to pursue a better life with the cost of another. She was plagued by restlessness and asked herself if Mariam had died for that. Laila wondered if Mariam sacrificed herself so she Laila could be a maid in a foreign land (389). Feeling the guilt she continues to live her life and thinks like a mother, she has to stay if she wants her children to have a good life.
Above all, endurance takes courage.

No matter the danger of escaping an abusive husband, Mariam and Laila risk their life in an attempt to run away from Rasheed earlier in the novel. When they don’t succeed and get caught laila takes courage to tell him that everything might end bad for them. “ Let us go officer...if you send us back, there’s no saying what he will do to us (266). By saying this she admits that they ran away and now it may cost her and Mariam’s life. Furthermore, when Laila has to send off her daughter Aziza to an orphanage because the family can not feed her any longer, Laila has to be courageous. As law, no woman can travel the streets without a male accomplice and Rasheed is too stubborn to accompany her, so Laila takes the matter in her hands and often goes by herself. When the Taliban stops her she doesn’t give up. “But, usually, Laila refused to cave in. She made as if she were going home, then took a different route down side the streets”(321). One must have courage in order to disobey those in charge.

In the end, it always depends on how far can a person go. Mariam and Leila know that endurance takes strength, willpower and courage to endure a life with little freedom and stability in one’s

world.