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Rhea Malhotra
Ms. Wilson
AP Multicultural Literature
12 February 2013
Gender Roles in KhaledHosseini’sA Thousand Splendid Suns
For the latest American fashions, skirts become shorter and shorter, as the shirts rise
higher and higher; however, Afghani style is the same as it was twenty years ago: burquas
covering women from head to toe.
At a point of advancement, Afghanistan’s women began to adapt western thinking,
expanding their place in society. They began to hold government offices, medical positions and
make their mark on society. This form of life was quickly overturned with the entrance of the
Taliban into Afghanistan. Author, KhaledHosseini, left Kabul in a state of development in 1976
and was shocked to see what had become of the economic capital of Afghanistan. Streets were
left bloodied, men hung from cranes and women forbidden to leave their homes. Hosseini’s
works are set in the city of Kabul, and emphasize thoughts of equality, prejudice and barriers that
have been built to seal a potentially triumphant nation, into a nation in an ever-lasting state of
chaos.
Before the Taliban entered Afghanistan, the economy was stabilizing; the women were
visioning a country that belonged to them and the citizens of Afghanistan saw hope in their
country’s future. Women began to emerge into respected jobs, and people began to adapt

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“modern” ideals. With the entrance of the Taliban, however, the new norm was disrupted and the
unprogressive status quo was reinstated – demoralizing women further.
Through the harsh imagery, vivid verbs and genderlectin A Thousand Splendid Suns,
KhaledHosseiniaddresses Afghanistan’sinability to progress and urges changes to the country’s
patriarchal structure.
Men’s oppression of women begins with the language exchanged between the genders,
implicating symbols of silencing women. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, “genderlect,” typical
speech patterns between characters, demonstrates verbal barriers men create for women (Githens
1). With full control of the household, Rasheed rarely gives Laila and Mariam the chance to
challenge his voice. Making his viewthe only view. Although conversations are common, the
exchange of dialogue is focused around Rasheed’s comments, followed by Mariam’s inability to
comment. Even with Mariam’s voice meekly seeking acceptance from her husband, Rasheed
never fails “to maintain the upper hand in a conversation” (Githens 1).Mariam persists to gain
knowledge of the world that has kept her uneducated; however Rasheed diminishes her hopes by
creating verbal barriers, with harsh comments accusing her of having a “brain [which] is empty”
(Hosseini 98). Such barriers result in isolationdue todominated conversations and demeaning
comments, which “chip away at [Mariam’s] feeling of self-worth and independence” (Hidayah
section 3). With Hosseini’s symbolic barriers made through word choice, Mariam’s hopes are
diminished to be educated on her country, making her feel like nothing more than Rasheed’s
uneducated wife. A wife who has no chance of speaking her voice. Laila’s situation is similar,
with no chance of a protruding voice, leading Rasheed to resort to “sarcasm, humiliation and
insulting words” (Wahyuni 14). He silences Mariam and Laila. With his booming voice, he
creates a barrier Mariam and Laila cannot pass through (Hosseini 122).Such silencing evolves

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into verbal abuse – a type of abuse the women of Afghanistan are constantly subjected to due to
society’s inability to encourage otherwise – an abuse Hosseini clearly depicts this oppression
with language.
Verbal abuse evolves from women accepting such speech and results in furthering
women’s inferior voice. Unable to protest their treatment, women remain further suppressed,
being threatened - and cursed by males. Yet, their silent reactions depict their ability to tolerate
the pain of threats. A tolerance men lack as well as seen in their need to cease all others’ voices
in order to project their own. Women then feel as if men’s voices, which tend to be louder,
deeper and more rash, leave women defenseless, succumbing to “fear and weakness that leads to
the lack of confidence and dependency” (Wahyuni 10). The “modern Afghan women married to
modern Afghan men” have learned to stray away from fear, however, to express the voice inside
of them (Hosseini 75). Such women are seen, by dominant males, as attempting to break
boundaries of voice, presenting themselves in a way women have never been seen. Their clothes
make a statement of feminine power, without the need to interrupt or cast away others’ voices.
These clothes are “mirror[s] which reflect society;” as the times progress so does the voice and
expression of women (Sastra 7). Hosseini displays a time in Afghanistan dominated by the
“terrorist control of wives by their husbands,” which keeps women submissive to men who
demand complete ownership (Kazemiyan 63). By using their superior voices, males keep women
at a level they are unable to rise above. They use threats to oppress women, keeping themselves
at the top of the patriarchal ladder. However, Hosseini develops female characters that speak out,
and finally decide not to tolerate the verbal abuse. Laila and Mariam are finally able to end the
verbal abuse Rasheed casts upon them. In order to keep women submissive men use monetary
methods to keep their wives dependent by way of financial verbal threats. Such methods result in

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women attempting to escape their oppression by “prying [their husband’s] wallet open” and
stealing “a single bill” (Hosseini 247). Without enough money to properly nourish their children,
Mariam and Laila are forced to steal money that Rasheed uses “as a means of controlling” his
wives (Hidayah section 3). Hosseini’s use of setting up the scene, with Laila “pry[ing]” open
Rasheed’s wallet at night, causes a tension in the air, a dramatized scene. Keeping the women in
a low economic state, makes them rely on the husband’s finances, an abuse from which the
effects are unrecoverable. Such abuse leaves Rasheed threatening Laila, a typical male verbal
response to an intrusion of power, by stating if “you try this again I will find you” (Hosseini
272). By dramatizing the scenes between the villains and heroes, the heroes are constantly being
subdued by the villains. They are forced to live in a world of villains, since they “could not
survive” any other world (Hosseini 14). Such intensity creates a deep-seeded “conflict between
the heroes and the villains and the dominant tone of the scenes” (Kenzemiyan 56). A conflict
which is left unresolved, keeping Afghanistan in an immobile, unprogressive state, and leads to
men using harsher means. Yet, when even this form of abuse cannot keep women from rising
above the glass ceiling men have built, men resort to physical abuse.
Women’s voice is further masked by physical abuse, which Hosseini intensifies with the
use of vivid imagery and harsh verbs. Such abuse, further subdues women, keeping strong
minded individuals “beaten and bloodied” (Hosseini 270). Rasheed knows his wives are able to
leave him, though they may not get far. He knows they can speak, although he tries his best to
keep them from doing so. He knows they have potential, yet he uses all his force to beat them to
the bottom of the patriarchal society. Rasheed uses violence to “expand [his] domination over the
heroes” (Kazemiyan 59). The heroes, however, continue to be oppressed, after being subjected to
extreme physical abuse including Rasheed “destroying and burning objects” (Hidayahsection 3).

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Rasheed’s violence is a result of his power-hungry gender. The words used to describe his
violence are active, powerful and penetrating. Hosseini depictsRasheedbeating the women
constantly, to keep them living in fear. Living in inferiority. With his time at home he continues
to “slap Aziza,” “kick Mariam” and “[throw] objects” (Hosseini 304). All of these action verbs
provide images of devastation upon the women in the household. In the most violent scenes,
Rasheed’s aggression is physically directed towards the mouth – the part of the body which can
literally give women a voice to disrupt a discriminant status quo. When Rasheed turns to
violence, his hands immediately grasp the neck by “tightly clamp[ing] [his hands] around Laila’s
windpipe” and using his “powerful hands” to “clasp [around] Mariam’s jaw” (Hosseini 104,
347). His beatings leave his daughter on the verge of dehydration, Laila suffocated, and Mariam
shoved in a toolshed. His visual beatings are brought to life with Hosseini’s powerful language.
His beatings leave the women physically destroyed, but mentally stronger – able to take worse
beatings as they occur. The verb choice and intense imagery keep the scenes of violence
destructive. Society, however, does not protect these women from such a husband. Society
allows this violence to continue – uninterrupted.
Society’s emphasis on male dominance causes an inability for women to counter abuse.
Hosseini uses Afghanistan’s dark history to intertwine his urge to alter an unequal society. Men
work at the hospitals, in the businesses and in all other shops. Any attempt for women to join the
work force causes society to fear an imbalance in its conventional thinking. Scared of change,
Afghani officials have put laws in place to maintain the status quo, and oppress women in a state
similar to that of slaves – the slave owners being, their husbands. A state Hosseini longs to
overturn. Society issues laws to “imprison [women] for running away” from their husbands, as
though they rank as nothing above property, by being forced to “stay inside [their] homes at all

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times” (Hosseini 266. 278). Such laws demonstrate the oppression men have placed over women,
in an unprogressive Afghanistan. Women are unable to run from men. The Taliban members’
words demonstrate a sense of ownership men claim over women. These claims portray a reality
where the happiness of the man trumps the unjust beating of a female. By not allowing females
to escape the evils around them, the law continues to place men superior to women; leaving
Afghanistan as a stagnant country. A country lacking a work force and modern principles of
equality. The “implementation of such laws discriminate women,” giving them no hope of one
day being equal in stature to men (Wahyuni 14). Afghani culture has allowed for men to use “the
name of honor,” and “religion and science” as excuses to bring discrimination upon their wives
and daughters, keeping them in an inferior state (Hosseini 253 and Wahyuni 15). For Mariam’s
crime of killing her abusive husband, who has attempted to kill her multiple times, she is faced to
pay “the same price a male would pay for killing another man” (Marcinaik 13). She is punished
for enduring a life of pain; for saving her own life. She is punished because her crime was
towards a man. Rasheed faced no charges, though he had continually abused his wives, often
leaving them on the verge of death. However, once a crime has been committed against a man,
especially by a women, the punishment intensifies. Afghanistan had decided to rid its society
from a woman breaking the status quo its laws had enacted. Womens’ jobs in society have been
degraded to nothing more than a child-bearer; a burden that with Mariam’s “lack of hierarchical
birthright, puts her in a lower class” (Marcinaik 2). With few women able to break past the strict
laws, not one is able to survive long enough to keep Afghanistan on a progressive track.
Afghanistan had built itself to be dominated by men, a class Hosseini continuously fights against,
who step on the backs of a much lower class: women.

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Hosseini writes his story with the intent to change the society that will remain at a
stagnant place due to its inability to change; keeping women below a male-dominated surface.
The progressive women are those who are executed for their abilities to surpass the barriers men
and society have placed on them. These women are executed at the first opportunity, leaving
Afghanistan forever in the dark, stagnant place it remains in, due to the inferiority of fifty percent
of its able population. Hosseini saw the progressive side of Afghanistan, and then returned to a
suppressed nation, and is therefore able to distinctly compare the two states of the country, and
craftA Thousand Splendid Suns to “correct the narrow view of Afghanistan” that the men and the
government have set in place (Sastra 3). With these perspectives taken into account, Hosseini
provides “an authentic account of the political reality” which has engulfed the women of
Afghanistan into a state of depreciation which Afghani culture has begun to accept (Kanzemiyan
57). By demonstrating the “impacts of the Afghan conflicts” between the genders, A Thousand
Splendid Suns shows the result of oppressing abled women from helping a stagnant nation
(Sastra 9). This book is a narrative written in fiction, with a nonfiction story. Hosseini builds the
narrative off of women’s roles as he has seen them to be in Afghanistan. Raised in America, he
sees the injustice these women are faced with. The “necessity of having a son”, results in sex-
selected abortions for daughters (Marciniak 5). Afghanistan, under the Taliban rule, keeps
women in an inferior state, by believing in outdated ideals. Rasheed practices such ideals by
wanting nothing less than a son: “a girl” (Hosseini 87). He is also disgusted in Laila’s hope for
an education, practicing a “negative opinion on educated women” as though they are trying to
reject the rules, by becoming educated, and as a result, are disrupting a traditional way of life,
that must be left unchallenged (Wahyuni 14). A traditional life in which only a husband can
“keep [women] off the streets” (Hosseini 283). Women are able to feed themselves. Protect

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themselves. Free themselves. Rasheed and the men in Afghanistan, however, have kept women
thinking they are not able to accomplish these tasks without the aid of a male. Hosseini shows
the potential bottled up within these women that Afghanistan has robbed by discriminating –
keeping the country unable to develop and grow.
A Thousand Splendid Sunsdemonstrates an Afghanistan that promotes the oppression of
half the abled population. With violent descriptions, vivid imagery and historical references,
Hosseini addresses the blatant issues facing Afghanistan and urges changes to the traditional
patriarchal thinking. Women’s reactions to being treated inferior, however, proves them to be
superior; proves them to be capable of withstanding the extreme trials of submission designed by
men. Even with Rasheed’s constant insults, threats and beatings, Laila and Mariam endure. They
cringe with the words and cry with the pain, yet, until they are faced with the test of love for one
another, they stay strong in the face of abuse. With their silence, and ability to withstand the
abuse, women prove the strength in the female gender. Rasheed demonstrates the power of his
fist throughout, but Laila and Mariam demonstrate the power of their silence, and their love.
Hosseini builds such strong women, by emphasizing the discriminations they are forced to face.
Though anyone is able to use violence to subdue others, few are able to give up their lives for
another. The burdens Mariam and Laila carry – in the face of the Afghani law and their husband
– display the depth behind the moral and mental superiority of women and the shallow inferiority
of the abusive men – Hosseini’s moral of A Thousand Splendid Suns.