A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the famous author known for his New York Times Bestseller, the Kite Runner, has stunned his readers yet again with a soul wrecking, beautifully written masterpiece that gives insight on Afghan women in the 1990s, and how they tried to overcome domestic violence and the inequality of their society and in their homes.

       It tells the story of two Afghan women of drastically different backgrounds who encounter, both ending up trapped in a horrible situation, and how they tried to combat the troubles being a woman has brought upon them in their society.

Mariam is born an illegitimate child, suffering from the disgrace caused by her birth as an illegitimate child, the absence of a father figure throughout most of her childhood, and a mother whom she thought, for many years, didn’t love her as a mother should have. And after she was out on her own in the world of being a married wife, she also had to suffer through the horrendous abuse caused by her husband, which was deemed normal in their society.

       Laila was born in a loving family, well, a loving father at least. And it has given her a much better childhood compared to Mariam, but as the story progresses, after a long series of unfortunate events that led her to an eventual marriage, she had to suffer through almost the same pains that Mariam had suffered through for many years. And as their lives and stories collide, Laila eventually found a loving mother figure, an experience she never had with her real mother.

       These two women came together, a heartwarming found family trope with both of them trying to fight against the unjust of their community, along with in their own homes. It opens people up to the unjust of the law and the double standards set for women and men of the society. If a man does something that would seem unspeakable, it would be completely accepted as their own business, one which no one should control or even mind; on the other hand, if a woman creates a minor mishap, one which does not affect anyone else but themselves, the punishment would still be indescribable.

       This book seems to perfectly tackle the problem with, not only as mentioned above the messed up patriarchal society, but also domestic violence and just generally marriage for women of their time and place. With descriptions that aren’t explicit enough for it to cause dread and fright, but just graphic enough to express how gruesome their experiences were, along with lots of women in the same situation. It opens up people’s minds to how the society was treating women, and that lots of women today still suffer from domestic violence and the inequality Mariam and Laila had to go through. I hope this book informs people about the brutal reality of being a woman in such a society, and that it reaches out to more women in similar circumstances to have a voice, and to be heard. And of course, I hope you enjoy it, it’s a captivating novel to say the least.