ATSS Reflection

I was a biased person before reading this book. Every time I passed a woman
wearing a hijab, some not-very-nice thoughts would cross my mind for no reason at all.
It was hard beforehand, to detach every Muslim person from 9/11. I looked towards
Afghanistan with distaste. So when I began A Thousand Splendid Suns, I was skeptical
and apprehensive. When I began to read the book at 7:00 pm, I dont think I would have
stopped if the clock hadnt of read 12:30 am. I had finished 48 chapters, without even
realizing it, for I had never before read a story of this sort before. As cheesy as it
sounds, this book did change me, or at least my outlook on Afghanistan, Muslims, and
hijab-wearing women. I cant look at the Afghanis with empathy, for I have not been
through anything as extreme as they have, but there is much sympathy and admiration
from me towards them now.
I could make an endless list of the things I have learned from A Thousand
Splendid Suns. For example, unlike in America where wars have relatively never been
at our door steps, multiple wars have been wrecking Afghanistan for many years now,
right in the middle of daily life. Also, when a women wears a hijab, burqu, etc. in
Afghanistan, its the husbands choice, not hers. Especially shocking: back in the 80s
and 90s when Afghanistan really needed help from the U.S., the U.S. was a no-show.
Yet when the Taliban who has caused Afghanistan turmoil for over 20 years has
attacked the U.S., then were all over them, even though we couldve prevented it a
decade earlier. While reading the book, I even discovered pieces of information that Id
thought werent true before.

One of the things that struck me as odd from the book, was how the Afghans
fought to get the equality-loving peaceful Soviets out, but nothing to get rid of the chaosinducing, murderous Taliban. After so much happiness and peace before the soviets
reign, and during the soviets reign, how could they just sit back and watch the Taliban
kill so many innocent people and make everyones life miserable? Even though
Rasheed put two and two together about whose daughter Aziza was, he never had
intent to kill her and only her. After Rasheed made up the lie about Tariqs death, and all
the snappy comments he made about him, you think hed show no mercy. Maybe his
intent was to use Aziza as bait against Laila?
After reading this book, I would give it a 4/5 stars. It made a huge impact on my
open-mindedness and bias, just as it would anyone else who reads it. There arent
many books out there who give the perspective from the ever-so-disliked Afghani
women. It shows a reader that they, and most Muslim/ Afghani people are not guilty, but
similar to us as they have felt the terror known as the Taliban. Even though the book is
fiction, there is a lot of information about the lives in the Middle East in this book.
Can we judge another culture by our own standards? NO. We have been raised
with morals, beliefs, and customs different to other people from other cultures. What we
know as right and wrong may not even be considered in another part of the world. We
have no place to judge people form another culture, if we dont know enough about
them. People will and have lived their entire lives judging people and cultures
inappropriately, and what kind of a person does that make them? People need to be
informed about someone or something before they go trampling all over it.