| A Thousand Splendid Suns is about the lives of two Afghanistan women married to the same man during the country’s political turmoil in recent years. Mariam was the illegitimate daughter of a rich business man in Herat and was born in the 1950s. Her mother was originally the housekeeper for the man; but after such disgraceful happenings, she moved herself to the hilly side of the city and led an isolated life for 15 years, until Mariam ran away to found her father. The mother committed suicide heartbreakingly, and the father gave her away to a shoemaker friend living in Kabul, due to fear of losing face if he kept Mariam in his house. The whole arranged marriage twisted Mariam’s life around. Her husband, Rahrim, was more than 30 years older than her, expecting her to bare him a son after his has died and treated her like a servant. Worse, after 7 times of miscarriages she became like a slave to him. Surprisingly, Mariam “endured” all these abuses and insults because a woman who has no education and earning power like her needed a man to provide her shelter and food. In the night of revolution in 1979, Laila was born into an average family in Kabul. Her father was a university professor and stressed the importance between literacy and a country’s power and development. Laila was lucky to get educated and experienced the fair treatment to female during her childhood. Yet, wars among the Afghans and Russians and later the civil wars broke the bright future for her. People close to her either died or left the city. She became orphaned and learnt that her boyfriend Tariq died on the escape to Pakistan. Without anyone to rely on and secretly bearing a baby from the last encounter with Tariq, she could only choose to be the second wife of Rahrim. The two seemingly unrelated women now intersect their lives under this brutal house hood. In the beginning, both of them were enemies, in particular for Mariam because the invasion of Laila has taken her solo reliance. However, after Laila had given birth to a girl, Aziza, and Rahrim’s increasing coldness to Laila, Mariam began to feel pity for Laila. The iron curtain started to melt down through caring for Aziza and eventually the two women turned into companions. Yet, life is full of twister. The Taliban dictatorship was no better than the times during wars and the family no longer had enough to feed. Aziza was sent to orphanage. One day, after visiting Aziza, in front of the door steps appeared Tariq! Laila discovered that Rahrim has tricked her to marry him. Later that night when Rahrim knew Tariq has been visiting, reasoning became outrage, resentment and betrayal, exploding into a big fight. Laila nearly got killed, but at the urgent glimpse Mariam saved by knocking down Rahirm with a shovel, ending their miserable lives in this prison-like home. Laila’s freedom to Pakistan with Tariq was not without sacrifice. Mariam was accused of murder and was executed. The book shocked me not just because of the political turmoil within Afghanistan and how wars have brought upon poverty and destructions to its citizens, but the low status and poor treatments to women. Women cannot work, have to accompany by male relatives and wear burkas whenever they go out, have to totally be obedient and summit to their fathers or husbands etc. In the story, there was only one hospital for women in Kabul’s outskirt. There was only one female doctor and inadequately equipped. When Laila gave birth to her son by Caesarean section, the whole hospital had no analgesic! These kinds of treatments to women are simply regarding them as animals, maybe worse than that as there is no mercy shown in the Taliban rulers. “A man critics always point to the woman.” One may find this unacceptable in modernity, but this is true in countries where the males have absolute authority over the females. The inequality and injustice of women really troubled me and I wonder why a country with so many dedicated Muslims can be so unkind to another human being. Is it the tradition that causes this? Or is that the authority alters the meaning for what have supposed to mean good in the teachings, leading to such culture? I feel deeply sympathetic to those suffering under these inhumane circumstances. Besides, the descriptions of the environment were very detailed and created vivid images of the country, leading the readers to think they were actually right at Afghanistan. Still, the most endearing part of the novel is the life and character of Mariam. Her attitude towards life is what I admire. Being an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant and later gave into a man who was so much older and barely known to her, she did not complain about anything bad happened to her at all surprisingly. What she did was hardened herself and ENDURED the obstacles in her life. Though she was not educated, the endurance within her helped her gained the knowledge of survival. Compared with Laila, who came from a fairly well-off and educated family, Mariam knew how to survive in the reality more than her. Mariam stayed calm and planned for the next steps to safe the others during crisis, while Laila became nervous and behaved like a helpless child. On the other hand, Laila’s education has taught her how to voice out and rebuke upon unfair dealings, whereas Mariam submissiveness definitely led her to continual abuse by Rahrim. Nevertheless, through repeated exposure to Laila’s frequent challenging their husband, Mariam also doubted the way she should be treated. In the end Mariam had the courage to stand up to fight Rahrim and rescued Laila from being suffocated. Education is necessary and important to achieve equality and justice between the two sexes, partically in the developing countries. The most touching and heart-breaking theme of this fine and delicate novel was of course LOVE. Love is sacrificial, unconditional and powerful; and it is this deepest feeling of all emotions can help people to struggle through all the numerous tasks and challenges in life. Without love, there will be no hope and believe. |
