A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Exam`s are finally over and to celebrate , I bought a new book. :) It`s A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I finished it in one setting today :D The setting and feel of the storyline is very much like the first book by the same author, The Kite Runner. It`s all about the life of Afghanistans living in Kabul, going through the war, living and coping with conflicts brought on by tradition and misgivings. Family ties, honor, love, shame and redemption are also reoccurring themes. I even spotted one of the characters from The Kite Runner in A Thousand Splendid Suns.I am not going to tell who it is :D Read it yourself :P
A Thousand Splendid Suns talks about an odd sort of family unit that spanned three generations formed as a result of adultery and copulation before marriage that leads to harami (bastards). The story starts of with Mariam a harami, as a child, growing up hungry for her father's love and her mother's approval. Upon finding out the reality of her father's promises and the truth behind her mother's words one fateful day, her world comes crashing down. A flurry of misgivings, cowardice and wrath soon follows and we are led on to our next set of characters and the next harami. It is all drama, drama, drama with no stones left unturned.

In all, Hosseini weaves a wonderful tale of how strong human bonds can be. Be it by blood or love, no war nor any misgivings can tear humans who have shared something special together apart. As sick as it is to read and feel the hardship that these people have to endure during the war, and to comprehend the gory nastiness of extremes humans inflict upon others, it is amazing to see how the human spirit can hold up and to fight what seems to be at that point, the impossible.

The plight of women living under the Taliban regime takes somewhat of a center stage here since the main characters are women. As someone living in the free-er parts of the world, the trauma and pain of these undermined burqa clad women are something i cannot comprehend but sympathize with. Yes, sure we can understand the facts, the victimization they face, the freedom they can never have, the education they never get. But do we really know how they feel? Can we understand the pain and anguish that they have to go through? The indignity of being forever forced into doing things against their will by men?

Oh sure its getting better people say. Theres even a beauty school now that the Taliban got kicked out. But is it really better? In homes, do the men give two hoots what their wives think? Do they give them the respect they are entitled to? Do the daughters get education? In fact, this does not only happen in Afghanistan. It happens everywhere in this world. Yes, even in Malaysia. I believe there are still men out there who beat their wives and rape the innocents. There are still girls married of against their will, forced into prostitution, or condemned from birth just for being born female.

It has been like this for as long as time and it is not strange that women fought back and demanded for their rights since the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Thus, Feminism was born. Feminism is a word i don`t particularly like and advocate since it has no clear definition and has suffered much from being not clearly understood. But if it means the fight or theory that render women to be the masters of their own fate, to be no longer oppressed, then i must say, i am its firmest supporter. Nothing gets my blood boiling as much as seeing women being dominated by men.

May a thousand splendid suns shine down upon women everywhere. We are all one in this and shall shoulder it together till the end of time.