The document summarizes gender roles and the treatment of women in Kabul, Afghanistan as portrayed in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It describes how women are restricted to the home, often without education, and expected to be wives, mothers, and perform household chores. Polygamy is common, with men sometimes having multiple wives and favoring sons over daughters. Child marriage is accepted, and domestic violence against wives by husbands like Rasheed is prevalent. The document focuses on the characters of Mariam and Laila and their suffering as Rasheed's consecutive wives.
1. Gendered Cities: Kabul in A Thousand Splendid Suns , by Khaled Hosseini Ramona Bran University of the West Timisoara Faculty of Sociology and Psychology
2. “ One cannot count the moons that shimmer on her roofs Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls ” Ode to Kabul by Saeb-e-Tabrizi
10. The home Women forbidden to go OUTSIDE unaccompanied -Flogged if caught -Imprisoned (and then beaten by their fathers) if they tried to runaway Women secluded INSIDE their homes -Doing all the chores -Rearing the children -Being abused
11. Domestic violence Rasheed beats both his wives fiercely -makes Mariam chew pebbles -Laila loses a few teeth after being battered -both are kept for 3 days in separate rooms, without light, water or food