A Thousand Splendid Suns Report Essay Example
“The Reasoning, Existence and Hope for Women’s Rights in the Middle East”
The Middle East is notorious for holding women to a lower social status than men. Middle Eastern women have not been allowed to flourish as individuals for hundreds and thousands of years. In her detailed journal on women in the Middle East, Haleh Afshar explains, “For too long, the analytical parameters for understanding citizenship, identity and the processes of war and migration have been set up by men” ( 237). Either these women rebel or protest against the discrimination, or they are forced to look from the bottom up at society. A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, narrates the lives of two Afghan women named Mariam and Laila who are forced to feel the harsh wrath of a society that disregards women’s rights. They are forced to persevere in a society that decides who they marry and keeps them hidden from the public eye. Disrespect against women like this would make one wonder why this type of behavior is accepted in the Middle East. Some would point the finger at the Islam religion, as “99% of Afghans are considered to be Muslim” (Kolhatkar 173). Many misconceptions are made on the Islam religion because of the treatment of women in Afghanistan, but really the religion is not to blame. Nowhere in the Islam sacred writings does it promote placing women on a lower social status. Muslim men who have misled Afghans into believing this treatment of women is embedded in their religion are the ones to blame. The hope for Muslim women is diminutive in a male dominated society, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t making progress. The Islamic Feminist group has made enormous steps, “With help from Islamic Feminist groups and protests, Afghanistan is slowly working towards a community where men and women are equal” (Kolhatkar 82). Afghanistan is a country that has been wrongly convinced the Islam religion puts women at a lower social standard, but the feminist support
The Middle East is notorious for holding women to a lower social status than men. Middle Eastern women have not been allowed to flourish as individuals for hundreds and thousands of years. In her detailed journal on women in the Middle East, Haleh Afshar explains, “For too long, the analytical parameters for understanding citizenship, identity and the processes of war and migration have been set up by men” ( 237). Either these women rebel or protest against the discrimination, or they are forced to look from the bottom up at society. A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, narrates the lives of two Afghan women named Mariam and Laila who are forced to feel the harsh wrath of a society that disregards women’s rights. They are forced to persevere in a society that decides who they marry and keeps them hidden from the public eye. Disrespect against women like this would make one wonder why this type of behavior is accepted in the Middle East. Some would point the finger at the Islam religion, as “99% of Afghans are considered to be Muslim” (Kolhatkar 173). Many misconceptions are made on the Islam religion because of the treatment of women in Afghanistan, but really the religion is not to blame. Nowhere in the Islam sacred writings does it promote placing women on a lower social status. Muslim men who have misled Afghans into believing this treatment of women is embedded in their religion are the ones to blame. The hope for Muslim women is diminutive in a male dominated society, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t making progress. The Islamic Feminist group has made enormous steps, “With help from Islamic Feminist groups and protests, Afghanistan is slowly working towards a community where men and women are equal” (Kolhatkar 82). Afghanistan is a country that has been wrongly convinced the Islam religion puts women at a lower social standard, but the feminist support