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LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Special Issue 260 28th & 29th March 2022
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +919890290602
A Two Day International Online Conference on “Emerging Ideologies and Trends in English Language ,
Literature and Cultural Studies” Jointly Organized by Vivekananda College, Agasteeswaram ,Kanniyakumari &
Kongunadu Arts and Science College (Autonomous) Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI, The CiteFactor, COSMOS
ISSN 2349-5189
IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
A STUDY ON THE VIOLENCE AGAINST FEMALE CHARACTERS IN
KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
DR. N.C. VETHAMBAL, Associate Prof. in English, Govt. Arts College (A), Coimbatore 18
MRS. K. ANUPAMA, Assistant Prof. in English, Hindusthan Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore
ABSTRACT
This paper intends to explore precarious and
oppressed life of women in Khaled Hosseini‟s A Thousand
Splendid Suns (2007), set in war-ravaged background of
Afghanistan. The novel introduces many female characters
who are offended, sexually harassed and crushed by both
male and female figures. In spite of all the suffering imposed
on them, they challenged the cruelty against them. Through
the miserable stories of Mariam and Laila, Khalid Hosseini
presents the terrible situation of Afghanistan women who
are not only affected by the war but also by, forced
marriage, gender discernment, patriarchy and domestic
violence.
Khaled Hosseini has been one of the finest writers in the contemporary era. He belongs to
Kabul, Afghanistan but soon after the soviet invasion in his country his family moved to
Paris. They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the Saur Revolution in which the
PDPA communist party seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978. Instead, a year
after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in 1980 they sought political asylum in the United
States and made their residence in San Jose, California. Hosseini is currently a Goodwill
Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He has been
working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini
Foundation.
He is blessed with an art of writing marvelous stories. His books The Kite Runner (2004), A
Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and The Mountains Echoed (2013) became bestselling
novels. A Thousand Splendid Suns has been a heart rending story of two women being
tortured in the hands of dominating husband. Hosseini says, “When I began writing A
Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself thinking about those resilient women over and over.
Though no one woman that I met in Kabul inspired either Laila or Mariam, their voices, faces
and their incredible stories were always with me, and a good part of my inspiration for this
novel came from their collective spirit”.
The novel represents the three decades life story of three oppressed Afghan Women
Nana, Mariam and Laila, written in three parts. Nana is more characterized as Mariam's
mother and Jalil's wife in the novel. She lived as Jalil's housemaid until she became pregnant
with Jalil's baby, Mariam. Nana was suffering from her husband Jalil and his family‟s
rejection of her as his legitimate wife. Eventhough Jalil exploited Nana, he put all the blame
to Nana and dishonored her character. Jalil and his family expelled her out of his house and
Page 2 of 4
LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Special Issue 261 28th & 29th March 2022
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +919890290602
A Two Day International Online Conference on “Emerging Ideologies and Trends in English Language ,
Literature and Cultural Studies” Jointly Organized by Vivekananda College, Agasteeswaram ,Kanniyakumari &
Kongunadu Arts and Science College (Autonomous) Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI, The CiteFactor, COSMOS
ISSN 2349-5189
IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
forced her to live alone in the Kolba with her daughter Mariam. Nana has undergone a lot of
psychological pain and passed the pain to her daughter through her words by abusing her
daughter, Mariam by saying „harami‟ from her childhood. After this bitter experience, Nana
teaches to Mariam: “Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle
that points north, a man‟s accusing finger always finds a woman” (Hosseini 7). Nana always
tried to pass her pain and dishonor to her daughter Mariam, instead of grooming her for a
better future.
Mariam begins her life with a „harami‟ status; continues her struggle for personal
identity, agonize and endures as an abused woman and leave this world as a woman of
consequences by digging herself out of the lower social status that society attached to her.
The novel portrays Mariam‟s endurance, struggles and resistance in her strenuous journey to
get a legitimate ending. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of Nana and the wealthy Herati
gentleman, Jalil and second wife of Rasheed a widowed shoemaker in Kabul. Rasheed treats
Mariam decently at first, but after she suffers miscarriage after miscarriage, he abuses her
both physically and verbally. It becomes clear that Rasheed's only use for Mariam is in her
ability to replace the son he lost years ago. Her childless marriage to Rasheed eventually
forces her into a life of submission and misery until close to the end of her life, when Laila
provides her with some hope. At the end of the novel, Mariam rises up in revenge and saved
the life of Laila by striking Rasheed dead. She is ultimately executed by the Taliban for her
actions. By killing Rasheed, she takes herself out of the gender and class domination that she
has faced throughout herlife. Through her daring action she proves that the subjugated can
rise up against the tormentor for protecting the dear ones by sacrificing her own life.
Laila, the second female protagonist, is the youngest child and only daughter of
Hakim and Fariba. Laila, 19 years younger than Mariam, had born 500 miles from Herat in
the city of Kabul. Hosseini depicts the tragic life of the two female protagonist of the story
who started their lives from an entirely different path and intertwined their lives and became
companions due to their miserable life with Rasheed. The absence of both of Laila's older
brothers, who have gone to war, makes her mature for her age and fills her with a sense of
purpose. Laila has a strong desire to use her intelligence and education to improve the world
around her. At age 15, Laila falls in love with her best friend, Tariq, but war forces Tariq and
his parents to flee to Pakistan. Days later, Laila's parents decide to leave Afghanistan as well,
but as they were packing, a rocket hitted their house, killing Laila's parents and wounding her.
Rasheed and Mariam, the neighbors of Laila, nurse her back to health. Laila's idealism and
independence are challenged when she decides to marry Rasheed in order to give her unborn
child by Tariq. Upon becoming a mother, Laila puts her children first and finds she is willing
to accept limitations she once would have been openly mocked. The friendly and motherly
relationship with Mariam made her life a little comfort amidst the brutality of Rasheed.
Domestic violence is very prominent in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. The
book portrays domestic abuse in Afghanistan accurately. Domestic abuse is more common in
women and little girls who are forced to be married. In A Thousand Splendid Suns the violent
Rasheed with a brown leather belt in his hand, while
“Mariam slides out of her bed and begins backpedaling. Her arms instinctively
crossed over her chest, where he often strikes her first (Hosseini 255).
Page 3 of 4
LangLit
An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal
Special Issue 262 28th & 29th March 2022
Website: www.langlit.org Contact No.: +919890290602
A Two Day International Online Conference on “Emerging Ideologies and Trends in English Language ,
Literature and Cultural Studies” Jointly Organized by Vivekananda College, Agasteeswaram ,Kanniyakumari &
Kongunadu Arts and Science College (Autonomous) Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Indexed: ICI, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Academia.edu, IBI, IIFC, DRJI, The CiteFactor, COSMOS
ISSN 2349-5189
IMPACT FACTOR – 5.61
This fear, emerging out of the disposition of Rasheed, has been the cause of
permanent psychological torture for Mariam for many years. The brutality of Rasheed with
Laila, Hosseini depicts the scene as:
“And then he is on Laila, pummeling her chest, her head, her belly with fists,
tearing at her hair, throwing her to the wall... Rasheed pushes Laila to the
ground, and begins kicking her” (Hosseini 326).
Except it, both women have to face double brutality – at the hands of Rasheed.
Secondly, the young girls have to face sexual violence in which the dominant men are seen
trying to establish sexual relationship by force, damaging sexual organs, and boycotting and
cutting sexual relations.
The third world women‟s voices are not heard outside as they are subjugated twice:
first by the country‟s political structure and later by the patriarchal domination. When
Mariam opposes for her husband‟s marriage with Laila, his answers were:
"Eighteen years," Mariam said. "And I never asked you for a thing. Not one
thing. I‟m asking, now.”
He inhaled smoke and let it out slowly. "She can't just stay here, if that's what
you're suggesting. I can't go on feeding her and clothing her and giving her a
place to sleep. I'm not the Red Cross, Mariam."
“But, This?”
"What of it? What? She's too young, you think? She's fourteen. Hardly a child.
You were fifteen, remember? My mother was fourteen when she had me.
Thirteen when she married.”
"I. I don't want this," Mariam said, numb with contempt and
helplessness.
"It's not your decision. It's hers and mine." (Hosseini 213)
“Structural violence is a form of violence wherein some social structure or social
institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs.” (Structural
Violence, 2022) Afghan women are the victims of physical, sexual and religious violence, the
violence inflicted upon women by the strict Islamic laws of the then Taliban reign. In the
opening pages of the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns itself the mistreatment of women in
conservative Islamic societies is hinted at when one of the two protagonists talk vociferously
of what it means “to be a women in this world” (Hosseini 6) where “ like a compass needle, a
man‟s accusing finger always finds a women” (Hosseini 7).The Taliban, an extremist militia,
seized control first Herat (1994) and then Kabul the capital of Afghanistan, on September 27,
1996 and violently plunged Afghanistan into a brutal state of totalitarian dictatorship and
gender apartheid in which women and girls were stripped of their basic human rights. The
following quote bring to light the ill treatment of women by Taliban.