Differing Cultures

Every country has different values and opinions when it comes to women. We read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, which allowed us to see first-hand the treatment of women in
Afghanistan. It follows the struggles of women to “find their place.” Men are
allowed to have multiple wives and it is not uncommon for them to use verbal as
well as physical punishment when dealing with women. Something that is very
different than the American culture. In our country everyone is all about
equality for everyone, and men only have one wife (legally) and there are ways
to protect yourself from physical abuse. Sometimes women are unreasonably
punished in the book. For example, Mariam continues to have miscarriages and
Rasheed beats her, which is something that she has no control of. I think that
it is interesting to see how different cultures are. In America, a man is
looked down on if he beats his wife, but in Afghanistan it is something that is
just overlooked. After dealing with Rasheed and other men being controlling Mariam
finally grows confidence and ends up killing Rasheed. I do not believe any one
life is more important than another, but I think that it was a turning point
for Mariam and it is interesting to see how she grew as a character.

“A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated...” I really agree
with this quote from the story. As times chance and society grows sooner or
later women will need to be recognized, obviously some countries are further
behind than others. The women in Afghanistan do not agree with the way they are
being treated or the rules they have to follow, but they do not seem to be
making any major effort to change it. Just because you are born into a society
with specific views does not mean that you have to agree with them.

I found an article about women who spoke out about some of the laws that were
forced on them. The article “Afghan Women Protest Against New Law on Home Life”
by Dexter Filkins, that tells of 300 women leading a march demanding for
rights. The Taliban had passed new laws and one of them allowed for martial
sex, something that these women were protesting. One of them women that spoke
at the march said this, “Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse; it means a
woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants.”
The other parts of the law passed including the permission of the husband for
his wife to attend school or work outside the home, and women cannot refuse to “dress
up” if their husbands ask them to do so. It is interesting to see laws that the
government can force on the women there, and there is nothing they can do
because they do not have the same rights as the people in America. They can get
in real trouble for speaking out or disobeying their husband. I find it hard to
believe how different cultures are from one another but in some ways women are
still seen as inferior no matter where you go.