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Baylee Jones

Bates

English 112

28 April 2018

Timeline of Women in Afghanistan

Women rarely seen on the streets or in public places and when they are seen, they are

often covered head to toe and with a dominant male figure right next to them; life for women in

Afghanistan has not always been like this. Khaled Hosseini greatly portrays this through ​A

Thousand Splendid Suns. ​This novel tells the story of the main characters: Mariam and Laila. In

the first part of the book, it discusses Mariam’s life growing up and becoming an adult. Then it

goes on to discuss Laila’s life growing up. In the last part of the book, it tells the story of Mariam

and Laila coming together and realizing things about life and love that they never would have

been able to realize without the help of each other. The novel shows different aspects of life for

women before the arrival of the Soviet Union and later the Taliban and after their arrival. Khaled

Hosseini uses ​A Thousand Splendid Suns​ to educate readers about the life of women in

Afghanistan and how it changed over the past sixty years.

Life for women in Afghanistan was completely different in the 1960s than it is now. In ​A

Thousand Splendid Suns​, Mariam’s life begins in the 1960s. While Mariam is growing up, the

book portrays women as being free spirited and doing mostly anything they wanted to do. In the

very beginning of the book, it is brought to our attention that young girls were able to attend

school. “... Jalil’s daughters Saideh and Naheed were going to the Mehri School for girls in
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Herat” (Hosseini 17). In 1934 in Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah took over and shortly

after in 1973, Mohammed Daoud overthrew him. During their reign of power women and girls

were treated a lot more fairly. Women were able to become teachers and actually partake in

society as a whole. After Mariam is sent off to marry Rasheed, she gets to experience life for a

woman in Kabul. “Their mothers walked in groups of three or four, some in burqas, others not”

(Hosseini 66). This quote shows that in Kabul during the 1960s and early 1970s, women were

able to walk on the streets and be out in public without a male dominated figure and they got to

choose if they wanted to be covered head to toe in a burqa or not. Right after Mariam had the

experience of seeing other women in Kabul for the first time, Rasheed had decided to have a talk

with her and ask her to wear a burqa whenever she was to go out in public. “... men who bring

their wives to my shop. The women come uncovered, they talk to me directly, look me in the eye

without shame. They wear makeup and skirts that show their knees… Where I come from, a

woman’s face is her husband’s business only” (Hosseini 70). Although women did have legal

freedom to do what they wanted to, some men did not want to or allow their wives to do what

they wanted to. Rasheed proves to us that he has grown up that way and that he believes that

women should only be seen by their husbands and that’s it. It all personal preference during this

time in the book and in Kabul and their were no legal laws forcing women to do what their

husbands told them too. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and enforced a

minimum marrying age but women were still free. Women were treated as equals to men and

were considered their own person all the way up until 1992.

In 1993, the Taliban had started their invasion of Afghanistan and life completely

changed for women. In the novel, it is shown that the Taliban had officially taken over in 1996
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and shortly after they received notices completely changing life as they knew it. “... Attention

women: you will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander

aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a male relative… you

will not under any circumstance, show your face… cosmetics are forbidden. jewelry is

forbidden...you will not speak unless spoken to. you will not make eye contact with men… Girls

are forbidden from attending schools… women are forbidden from working” (Hosseini 278).

This change in power was completely different from what life was like for women in the past

fifty years. Women began having to follow all of those strict laws and if not followed they were

beaten and could even be stoned to death. Because of all of those rules implemented, women

began to marry just to have that male dominated figure because being in a forced marriage was

seen as being better than having to deal with the Taliban. After all, men were the ones who

provided for the family with food and money. Today, the taliban no longer is the only group in

control of Afghanistan. Many groups have rose to power and tried to fight off the Taliban, the

United States being one of the biggest countries doing so. Kabul, the home of Mariam and Laila,

is still one of the main areas still under control of the Taliban and women still experience the

same hardships that Laila and Mariam did. Many women have begun to try to flee the nation into

safer boarding countries, and while many have been successful, many have also failed and been

killed. Life for women has changed greatly over the past hundred of years and today women are

still living a life that many of us believe they are.

Khaled Hosseini uses ​A Thousand Splendid Suns​ to portray life for women before and

after the invasion of the Taliban. In him doing so, readers are being educated about the not so

male-dominated life for women.