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A Thousand Splendid Suns covers three decades of wars seen through the eyes of two women. Miriam is a child out of wedlock and at fifteen, forced to marry Rehashed, who grows to be abusive when she can’t have children. Eighteen years later he takes another wife, fourteen-year-old Leila; a smart girl who’s only other option was prostitution and starvation after her parents are killed by a rocket. Miriam and Leila become allies against Rehashed.
Both women have to accept their path that won’t be satisfactory: Miriam will sacrifice her life for Leila after she murders Rehashed, while Leila, even after arraying her childhood love, has to find a way to make sure it was for something. In this story there is a lot of government conflict, the change in role of women, and the interaction of the tribes within Afghanistan. The role of women changes drastically throughout the book. The years 1972 through 1991 was when it was “a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan” (135).
Most men, Rehashed not included, “did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on and nothing on their head” (125). Koala Armagnac, Laic’s teacher, said “women and men are equal in every way and there was no reason women should cover if men didn’t” (1 1 1). UT in 1 992, all that changed. “Strict Islamic laws ordered women to cover, forbade travel without a male relative” (260). The complete opposite of what it originally was. And in 1996, the Taliban made many rules.
Women must stay at home at all times, they were not to show their faces at any time, cosmetics, jewelry, and even laughing was forbidden. And absolutely no school. Eventually, in 2003, everything became alright for women again. In Afghanistan, the people are separated into tribes or regions and sometimes these groups interact in negative ways. The main two tribes in A Thousand Splendid Suns are the Passions and Tasks. The wracks have always felt slighted. Pasha’s kings have ruled this country for almost two hundred and fifty years and Tasks for all of nine months, back in 1929″ (1 30). Mom people in the tribes think it’s nonsense and others take it to heart. There is much rivalry. Like at Mammy’s party. “A Pasha’s had called Mad Shah Amassed a traitor for ‘making a deal’ with the soviets in the sass’s. ” (171) and a Tacit had been offended. They got in a big fist fight. Most of the fights between tribes aren’t just fist fights, they turn into real wars. Like some in the book. This book is over the three decades of war and most of that war was about overspent conflict. It all started in 1973 when Afghanistan was a republic and not a monarchy.
There’s a president named Doodad Khan. In 1 978, the communists took over and the power turned over to “the hands of the masses and freedom-loving people” (102). In 1 989, the soviets left Kabul, which pleased everything quickly unraveled with the leadership council that was formed. Accusations and rockets flew. Much Of this fighting was fighting between the tribes in Afghanistan. 1 994, Afghanistan became the Islamic State of Afghanistan and everything was the way the traditional tribes wanted t to be; Strict, religious, and discrimination against women.
The Taliban took over in 1996 and the rules were even stricter. In 2002, “the country has an interim president now, Humid Kari” (389). All these themes, the role of women, government conflict, and interaction of cultures, are still happening around the world. Women are still fighting for their rights in the Middle East. Right now, there’s a war in Syria over the government. I’m sure all over the world different tribes in different countries have some rivalry going on. So it’s not just happening in Afghanistan.