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His book impacts the world with its intense descriptions of life, and effect on people. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and History at a large high school in Kabul. In 1 976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated his Hosseini family to Paris. The Hosseini’s were ready to return to Kabul in 1 980, but by then Afghanistan had already endured a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army. The Hosseini’s sought and were granted political asylum in the United States.
In September of 1 980, he Hosseini family moved to San Jose, California. Khaled Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara university where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California-San Diego’s School of Medicine, where he earned a Medical Degree in 1993. Hosseini completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Hosseini was a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004. While in medical school, Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, in March of 2001.
In 2003, The Kite Runner, was published and has ince become an international bestseller, published in 70 countries. In 2006 he was named a goodwill envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns was published in May of 2007. Currently, A Thousand Splendid Suns is published in 60 countries. Khaled Hosseini has a strong relationship with his home country, Afghanistan. Hosseini has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The concept for The Khaled Hosseini Foundation was inspired by a trip to Afghanistan he made in 2007 with the UNHCR.
Despite his love for his home country Hosseini lives in northern California with his wife and family. The Soviets invasion of Afghanistan was the first event leading to the downfall of Afghanistan. “In Christmas 1 979, Russian paratroopers landed in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The country was already in the grip of a civil war. The Prime Minister, Hazifullah Amin, tried to sweep aside Muslim tradition within the nation and he wanted a more western slant to Afghanistan. This outraged the majority of those in Afghanistan as a strong tradition of Muslim belief was common in the country. (http:// www. guidetorussia. om/russia-afghanistan. asp) Soviets troops left Afghanistan in 1989. “Soviet troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan, nine years after they swept into the country. A convoy of Soviet armored vehicles traveled the 260-mile journey to the USSR border while other soldiers left aboard an Ilyushin 76 transport aircraft. Earlier, the Soviet government had announced the departure of the last troops although snow had delayed a five-day airlift from the Afghan capital Kabul. ” The Taliban rose to power after years of soviet invasion and destruction in Afghanistan.
The Mujadeen rose as guerilla groups to fight the soviets, but ne the soviets withdrew, the leaders began fighting amongst themselves. This help the Taliban move in and take power, which they did in 1996 by taking control of the capital city Kabul. The Taliban’s first military victory came when they seized the town of Spin Boldak near the Pakistani border in October 1994. In November they won control of Kandahar province, after they took the capital. In August 1998, the Taliban captured the city of Mazar-e Sharif, giving them controls of over 90% of Afghanistan.
Only three countries officially recognized the Islamic emigrate of Afghanistan: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emigrates. Once in power in Afghanistan, the Taliban implemented fundamentalist Islamic law, imposing penalties such as death by stoning for certain crimes and the amputation of limbs for thieves. Women were required to wear head-to-toe coverings called burqas. Women were banned from attending schools and working outside the home, and were forbidden from traveling alone. Television, music, and non-lslamic holidays were also banned. In September, 2001 , the U.
S. placed significant pressure on the Taliban to turn over bin Laden and al-Qaeda in response to the September 1 1, 2001, terrorist attacks. On October 7, after the Taliban refused to give up bin Laden, the U. S. began bombing Taliban military sites and aiding the Northern Alliance. By November 21 , the Taliban had lost Kabul and by December 9 had been completely routed. The Taliban ” Infoplease. com http://wmw. infoplease. com/spot/taliban. html#ixzzl qSui7eTi In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns it describes the life of two girls, Mariam and Laila, and how there lives collide.
Both women live in Afghanistan during the soviet and Taliban times. Mariam represents the life of girl forced to follow Old practices and Laila represents the new idea that females can ave an education and are able to attend school. This book impacts the world because it shows people who may not know what is going on in Afghanistan right now how women are treated and how life can go from amazing to awful with just a few changes. Women in Afghanistan are treated harshly by all men. The Taliban militias are known for raping women when they travel alone and/or beating them.
If a women is raped some husbands kill there wives in shame of what has been done to them. In extreme cases some women live in abusive households were they are beaten and unappreciated everyday. Some omen go through extreme cases were either their husbands burn them in rage or women burn themselves in order to make a statement and die with no more suffering from there husbands. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of an abusive husband. The impact on me from this story was immense. Living in the United States of America most people do not know what is happening in Afghanistan and/or the extent on what women are put through.
Mariam is the perfect example of a life of suffering for women in Afghanistan. Dishonored as a child, she was forced to live in a clay kolba with her mother. Married off at the young age of 14, her story begins with the life style Of an abusive husband. Laila, on the other hand, Was raised in a family were female education was pursued and girls were aloud to attend school. Laila’s Father is a very loving man and a determined mother. These two lives help represent the different generations and situations that have happened and are happening right now in Afghanistan.
The book A Thousand Splendid Suns is a great impact on society today because of its raw intensity and descriptive realistic writing. The Kite Runner was a runaway best seller and critical success. Khaled Hosseini drew huge, enthusiastic crowds as he toured the nation talking about the biographical aspects of this remarkable novel. It was clearly one of the best novels read in 2005. And, his talk to the Chatham County, North Carolina community was one Of the best author talks I heard that year. His novel was selected by nearly 40 communities as their book.
As good as that novel was, A Thousand Splendid Suns may be better. Will it, however, become the same publishing phenomenon? Will it become the centerpiece of community reads? It has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist. All the praise is well-deserved. The story is straightforward, the writing beautiful in its simplicity and use of well-chosen metaphors. It draws the reader into the lives of its characters. The history of Afghanistan is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. ltimately, this is more than a story of survival in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two indomitable women. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a must read for those who wish to understand the odern history (1964 – 2003) Of Afghanistan, which is told eloquently through the eyes of Laila and Mariam. (http://contemporarylit. about. com/od/fiction/ fr/l OOOsuns. htm) Obviously, A Thousand Splendid suns an impact on the world and was written with intense and correct historical back round on the country itself.
People of Afghanistan are going through rough times, and this book is just another great way to look through the eyes of what is happening over there. In the case of “Splendid Suns,” Mr. Hosseini quickly makes it clear that he intends to deal with the plight of women in Afghanistan, and in the opening ages the mother of one of the novel’s two heroines talks portentously about “our lot in life,” the lot of poor, uneducated “women like us” who have to endure the hardships of life, the slights of men, the disdain of society.
This heavy-handed opening quickly gives way to even more soap-opera-ish events: after her mother commits suicide, the teenage Mariam ” the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man, who is ashamed of her existence ” is quickly married off to a much older shoemaker named Rasheed, a piggy brute of a man who says it embarrasses him “to see a man who’s lost control of his wife. ” (http://www. ytimes. com/2007/05/29/ Is this Paragraph needed???