Thousand Splendid Suns

In “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Khaled Hosseini quickly makes it clear that he intends to deal with the struggles women face in Afghanistan, and just in the opening pages Mariam’s mother says “the lot of poor, uneducated women like us”. This is just the beginning and just to add to the suspense Mariam’s mother commits suicide, Mariam is then taken to live with her wealthy father and his wives. But her father is ashamed of her existence therefore he marries her off to a forty-five year old shoemaker Rasheed.

Rasheed forces her to wear a burqa and treats her with superiority, as if she is invisible. Mariam lives in fear of what is going to happen next and how would he react to things “his shifting moods, his volatile temperament”. Many times she would cook and he wouldn’t like the meal so he would knock it down, sometimes taking it further and giving her an immense beating.

After this the other main character Laila comes along. She is the cherished daughter of a teacher, who always persuaded her to continue her education. Her life was all she wanted, she had a family, an education unlike most girls, a good friend, and everything was going well. But then began the wars in Afghanistan. Her brothers fought in this war and ended up getting killed. From this everything got rough for Laila. Being outside was risking for everyone at any moment you could get hit and die. Tariq the love of her life, needed to leave with his and go to Pakistan. Before leaving though he asked Laila to come along with him but she denies his offer because she needs to stay with her family.

Laila’s life becomes shattered when a rocket lands on her house and kills her parents. Laila feels like an orphan, when she discovers that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child she decides to marry Rasheed in fear that if she doesn’t she and her baby will never survive on the streets of Kabul.
At first Mariam thinks of Laila as a husband stealer and tries to make things hard on Laila but when Laila’s baby, Aziza, arrives, Mariam begins to get along with her. Laila and her become allies, trying to protect themselves from Rasheed.