Women In Under The Persimmon Tree

(AGG) Everybody lives under different sets of rules, some easy to follow and others that break people down and try to make them “perfect” or try to make the people live in fear like the Taliban’s laws. (BS-1) The Taliban have taken away almost all of women’s freedom, restricting them to either stay in the house or go out only in the accompany of a close male relative. (BS-2) Women also have no access to education, although boys don’t have the best education either. (BS-3) Harsh punishments have led to the abuse and mistreatment of women who are living under the Taliban as well. (TS) The novel Under the Persimmon Tree accurately portrays the mistreatment of women under the Taliban and uses it to create a major theme of women inequality, …show more content…
(SIP-A) Women must always have a man with them when they want to go places. (STEWE-1) Even if a woman just wants to get out of the house for a few minutes they can’t because “women and girls [are] not allowed to work outside the home or even to venture out unless in the company of a close male relative” (Dass). (STEWE-2) For some women this could be terrifying given the fact that “Women were shot at or beaten if they ventured out of the house alone” (Dass). (SIP-B) It would be extremely easy for any woman to just give up and stay inside her whole life living in fear under these terrible circumstances. (STEWE-1) Some women even do! Nusrat talks about the servants in her household and most of her servants have lost hope for freedom as well as other women, “The disadvantage to having a female servant is that many women are not comfortable going to the bazaar unless they are accompanied by a close male relative” (Staples 78). Many women in Nusrat’s refugee camp have lost their homes due to the war with the Taliban. The have forgotten that they deserve freedom. Freedom is a basic human right, and in the novel it is used to show inequality. The men in the novel are going out and working while the women stay inside. (STEWE-2) While some women forget about freedom, others find ways to get around it and …show more content…
(SIP-A) The Taliban have taken away all education for women. (STEWE-1) Women have no education, specifically because “ [the Taliban] banned female access to education” (Kamal). Without education these women have nothing. If they ever find a way out of the Taliban’s control, they won’t be able to get jobs because they are not educated. (STEWE-2) The article "Afghanistan–Human Rights” also states that “[Women are] prohibited from attending school or universities”. (SIP-B) Education is something that women don’t get when under the Taliban’s control in real life, and in the novel it is a huge part of the inequality. (STEWE-1) When Najmah is in the refugee camp she encounters the Malek. She thinks about the education in her town and “ [she] wanted to study, but the Taliban shut down the schools in [her] village and all the villages of Kunduz. There were no schools for girls, and the only school for boys was the madrassa…” (Staples 184). Although the boys don’t get a great education, at least it is still an option. The women in the novel don’t have a choice. The author uses the Taliban’s rule of no education to show that inequality is there, it is a problem in the novel and in the real world. Najmah is living in her village believing that she will never get her education because the Taliban have taken it away from her. (STEWE-2) Even though some women will live their lives