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| Margaret Bourke White Image |
This photograph was taken in the 1950's of an Arab Muslim woman begging on the streets. Women were not permitted to speak loudly on the streets so she is holding a sign that she is a widow with children.
Women in the Middle East have long suffered at the bottom of the totem pole of society in these cultures where men are superior.
In the book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini the reader is allowed access and insight into this complicated society and its age old traditions.
What is perhaps most fascinating is that book offers a very non biased glimpse of how each separate government has affected these people, especially women. For instance it was under the communist government that the female characters, representing the female race of that time, was allowed the most freedom at least in the major cities. The character Laila grew up under communism which enabled her to go to school, as a child experience similar rights of the boys her same age, to see other women holding jobs, going to college and many other freedoms that are later torn from her grasp under the other various governments.
Hosseini follows the life of Miriam, a child born out of wedlock, whose mother dies and who is given away to be married by a seeminly unlovving father. Miriam's marriage does not seem so bad at first especially to one raised in such a harsh environment as a child but things soon begin to change. A little girl named Laila who lives across the street grows up under much different circumstances. She begins her life with freedoms, she goes to school, she a childhood friend Tarik, and they eventually fall in love. In a sad turn of events Laila and Miriam both are married to the same abusive hateful husband. It becomes the story of their survival through domestic abuse, warfare, a country falling apart, and a complete lack of basic women's rights.
A moment of introspection and perhaps critical thinking of my own country was that the US funded the gun-power and helped to get rid of the Communists when in fact by comparison they were the far better government to live under at least for women.
This novel tells the story of womanhood, friendship, human rights, and family. It allows a simple and realistic and dare I say it, unbiased glimpse at some of the reasons behind the current state of the Middle East and the harsh unforgiving life women face there. But not only does it provide readers with a glimpse of the state of affairs but Hosseini puts a human face, a woman's face, on the current events in the Middle East.
Some Women's rights happenings:
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