Language being grasped out of your breath, abhorrence and fear becoming your new best friend, and

a hopeful prayer that lingers in your soul hoping to be heard by the great Allah, is your quiet fight in the battle of silence and despair. In Khaled Hosseinis novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, women suffer from oppression and lack freedom, which is portrayed by real Afghan women today. Lack of freedom and oppressed women is something you do not normally hear when it comes to the United States of America. However, in Afghanistan, it means honor and shame. Khaled Hosseinis makes it clear to what is going on in Afghanistan in his novel. It is evident that the main female characters, Mariam and Laila, are the damsels in distress and that freedom is not a word that applies to Afghan women. After reading this book, I could not fathom what it would be like to live in such a society. Knowing that Afghanistan is still at war to this day, I wanted to understand how these women live day to day in such a disparate lifestyle compared to mine. Mariam and Laila constantly strive for survival mentally and physically; handling abuse and animosity from their own husbands. I pondered how Hosseini displays the strength of women while in times of vulnerability, yet show the weakness of men in times of trouble? I also wondered how he shows false feminism. Reading along, I wanted to know if Hosseinis childhood, affect his views of Afghan women. I have never experience such powerful imagery yet, Hosseini provided me to not only see, but feel what these women were experiencing. Though there were gruesome images such as breaking the molars in the back of her mouth (Hosseini 94), bullets had shredded her own brothers to pieces (Hosseini 137), etc, I wondered how the novel paralleled societal norms of this time period. I was also curious to know in what ways Hosseini makes the reader appreciate Americas freedom, especially when it comes to the government. A Thousand Splendid Suns

opened up my mind by sending strong signals from all the descriptions mentioned in the book, to appreciate that we, females that live in the United States, do not have to go through this pain as the citizens of Afghanistan do. I am lucky to be born in a country where everybody is treated equally and have freedom despite of gender. As I ventured to find answers to my questions, I received a lot of information through interviews of Khaled Hosseini as well as some articles about Afghanistan and Afghan women through websites such as amnesty.org and feminist.org. I uncovered facts and in-depth cultural information. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the female characters, as well as the constant struggles they embrace, exemplify the concept of feminism, while giving readers a more appreciative perspective of Americas freedom.