Women In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns The author Khaled Hosseini, weaves together a tale of how women are treated in Afghanistan through the lives of two women with different upbringings. The novel gives a vivid account of how most, if not all, of the women in Afghanistan are treated as nothing more than a cook, housekeeper, and caretaker for their children. The novel also gives vivid detail on how a women’s life is the exact polar opposite of a women who is living in America. A Thousand Splendid Suns also tackles other hard topics such as the verbally and physical abuse a women may face at the hands of either a family member or that of their own husband. The main focus of the entire novel is how even from birth, women living in Afghanistan …show more content…
The most common being a hijab which is a head scarf that only covers the ears, neck and hair. A chador would be best described as a cloak that covers the both hands and hair. However, a burqa is the opposite of a Hijab and a chador; a burqa covers the entire body from head to toe and the one wearing the garment is only able to see through a thick grill where the eyes are able to see out of. The burqa is also mention in the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion giving the description of a burqua as “Being a voluminous, tent like outer garment worn by women and girls from earliest puberty on, covering the entire figure from head to foot. Worn whenever a woman leaves her home or may otherwise be in the presence of proscribed males, it makes her totally anonymous and effectively invisible, also concealing and restricting her movements and activities.” …show more content…
It even might show that the husband has a strong since of domination over his wife. Rasheed goes on to tell Mariam that he also sees it as a way to show others that he has control over his her. “But I’m a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?” (p.63). Out of fear of not wanting to face the violent consequences that come with angering her husband, she simply nods and takes the garment from him and wears it through the reminder of their marriage, doing as she was told. All of the women born in the American culture are always giving the privilege of marring whom they choose. At times it is a childhood sweetheart or a boy that she might have meet in college. They are also able to choice if they want to be married in the first place or remain single and focus on their own lives and pursue a career if they wish to. However; this is considered a luxury for the women in Afghanistan. Most of the women are placed in an arranged marriage by their mother and father or a close family