Women in Afghanistan by Brooke Boden
A little about me: My name is Brooke Boden. I'm currently a sophmore at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. I major in public health and after I graduate I plan on pursuing a graduate program in nursing with the ulitmate goal of becoming a neonatal nurse. In my spare time I enjoy reading and riding horses. You can find me on twitter or instagram as brookeboden_
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| Book cover of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Source: Wikipedia
When I was in 10th grade my English class consisted almost solely of reading novels and writing papers on them. I hated writing literary papers, but I'm a huge reader so I enjoyed the different novels we were assigned. That year was especially uncommon when it came to the novels we read as they did not consist of the stuffy classic American novels we had previously read, instead we read more modern novels which told tales about different counties and different cultures. Growing up in a small town in South Jersey and having never left the country, this was the best exposure I could find to other cultures. That year I read many novels and learned many things I never knew before, but nothing stood out to me more than A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Before I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, I had little to almost no exposure to the Middle East. It wasn't until this year that I was ever taught the history of the Middle East or really came to understand the true aspects of what was going on over there. Throughout my life all I ever really learned about the Taliban was that they were bad and a threat to America. Growing up there was always the constant worry of what the Taliban was doing. I didn't understand truly why they were bad, all I heard was they were behind 9/11 and their name was synonymous with the word terriost. It wasn't until I read A Thousand Splendid Suns that my eyes were really opened. I began to realize how little American society focused on what the people in Afghanistan were going through in particular the war that the Taliban waged against women.
To tell you a little about this novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two women, Laila and Mariam, living in Afghanistan. Eventually these two women's stories are connected by their marriage to the same man and the abuse they suffer at the hands of this man. What really makes this novel stand out is that it has such a vast timeline in which we can see how drastically Afghanistan changes for women. When I first read this novel I was astounded by the things that happened. I found it hard to believe under the Taliban's rule polygamy was accepted, women were not aloud to walk in the street alone or travel alone, and they had to be covered from head-to-toe in an outfit known as a burka. Violating any of these rules could result in public beatings, and a crime against a husband could even result in execution.
Rather than focusing on the entire novel, I have decided to focus on Chapter 36 of the novel, as I feel what occurs captures brilliantly the situation that many women faced in Afghanistan. In this chapter, Mariam and Laila finally decide they can no longer cope with the brutality of their husband and decide to run away. Throughout their escape attempt they face many perils at the form of their government, all which showcase the brutality and extreme procedures the Taliban had in place, "This, Laila had known, would be the first risky part, finding a man suitable to pose with them as a family member. The freedoms and opportunities that women had enjoyed between 1978 and 1992 were a thing of the past now...The Supreme Court under Rabbani was filled now with hardliner mullahs who did away with the communist-era decrees that empowered women and instead passed rulings based on Shari'a, strict Islamic laws that ordered women to cover, forbade their travel without a male relative, punished adultery with stoning" (259-260). After reading this chapter of their struggle and understanding how serious laws regarding women were enforced, I was intrigued about the reality of what women really faced in Afghanistan.
When I first began my research into the political situation of women in Afghanistan, I found an overabundance of stories and facts supporting the story Khaled Hosseini told. There were so many horror stories recounted that I felt sure that this novel was not dramasized in the least. On one website a true story was featured about a woman in Afganistan who's son was dying. In order to save her son her only choice was to go out without a male escort, in doing so she was shot for not obeying orders. This was only one of many stories I read. It wasn't until I read the article, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?" by Lila Abu-Lughod that I was offered a new perspective. While there was a drastic change caused by the Taliban rule, as prior to their rule women had the right to vote and even made up over 15% of Afghanistan's highest legislative body(). However, as previously discussed with the Taliban all of these rights were taken away. One of the main reasons the US used for getting involved in Afghanistan was the excuse to stop the Taliban's extreme oppression of women. Abu-Lughod offers a critical look on this idea and how it relates to colonialism. She questions the motive of the US in getting involved in Afghanistan and comments on the cultural ignorance of what oppression really is. She points out that many times countries take up "the woman cause" in order to have a reason for asserting power. In this aspect I completely agree, as I think the US was capitalizing on the oppression of the Afghan women in order to have more of a reason to get involved in Afghanistan. One point in particular I found interesting was when she talked about burkas. Many people in the US view headdresses as oppressing, and in the case of Afghanistan, many saw it as a case of degradation, and while I do believe the Taliban enforced burkas partly due to this reason, the Taliban were not the first to enforce burkas. One region in Afghanistan had already adopted the practice of wearing burkas prior to Taliban rule and as the article pointed out, burkas were more of a way of feeling protected and secure rather than for oppression. 
Afghan Women Pre-Taliban
Source: U.S. Department of State
Woman Wearing Burka
Source: The Telegraph
While I found Abu-Lughood's criticism intriguing, I thought she was slightly insensitive towards the plight of the Afghan women. While I believe her criticism of the United States was accurate, I think she focused too much on the goals of colonialism to represent in her article how oppressive the Taliban really was. I just can't ignore the things I've read online about the treatment of women during this time, and also the harrowing details of the novel are too large for me to not support the United States involvement. In regards to the novel, I think Hosseini's account was very accurate and can be used as a memorial in representing the plight of women during this time. However, in regards to how he symbolizes the burka throughout the novel, I feel as if he dramatized and made it seem more oppressing than it really was, especially after comparing it to what I read in the article. Overall, I think this is one of my favorite books and it really helped in lifting the ignorance I had when it came to the Middle East. Throughout my analysis and research online into the accuracy, I feel as if it gives a thorough representation to what women really went through during this time.
Attached below is Chapter 36 from the novel and my comments along with it(:
               
Sources:
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print.
"I. The Taliban's War Against Women." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2016
Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others." American Anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 783-90. Web.
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