Women Under the Sun

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

Afghan women are now barred from attending school, participating in sports, leaving their homes alone, and so on. You get the picture. Everybody reads the same news. I just dare you to find the date of this enforcement.

But don’t worry, we’ll come to that later.

In the 1920s, King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan brought an influx of changes in the social machinery of the nation by establishing women’s educational and cultural institutions, with his own queen consort,  Soraya appearing in public without hijab in hopes of seeing the same in masses.That sounds great, right? A conservative nation changing its course forever and aligning itself with modern values so that its citizens, especially, women can walk shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world. I don’t think I need to tell you how that turned out. Or the next few years, in fact. A wayward modernising emperor ascends the throne and tries to restore women’s dignity, giving them basic rights which somehow threatens the existence of all the menfolk. Tribal leaders gather, the two superpowers build their own factions among them and off we are with another proxy war.

Something similar happened with the Shah of Iran in 1979. And then Afghanistan in the 70s has been very famous over social media for some time now. Another oppressor was taken down by a superpower and to defeat that, the other superpower in turn created a whole militant movement called the Taliban. This was again defeated in the early 2000s and a running peaceful republic was established. You all know how that ended. The world is running to find a solution, to launch peace talks with these terrorist groups and to talk some sense into them. There is a reason all major standardized intelligence tests have a pattern recognition section.

Khaled Hosseini, in his book A Thousand Splendid Suns, has woven a wonderful and gut-wrenching story about two women from different strata in the nation. Alas, this ‘fictional story’ is not very far from the truth. Two women—Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a big businessman and Layla, the educated daughter of a school teacher—get their hearts brutally broken by the men they trusted the most—their fathers and husbands. Now married to the same man, they realise that to fight this battle of constant violence, yelling and abuse, they must be each other’s biggest allies. Mariam’s mother commits suicide when she leaves her for her businessman father only to be disillusioned and left for the streets by him. Layla’s mother distances herself from her growing teenage daughter to delve into depths of sorrow created by her sons’ martyrdom. They realise that in their married home, their worth depends on their ability to produce children, especially sons. And the thing with realisation is that it always comes a tad bit too late. After multiple sacrifices, including getting almost killed for miscarrying, having friends, and doing any other ‘normal’ human activity, they decide enough is enough and devise a plan to escape this place once and for all. But when their plan fails and their husband finds out, they are both taken back home. The husband tries to strangle Layla to death, when in a fit of rage. Mariam kills the husband, sacrificing her life in the trial to make the lives of Layla and her children better. This is the only act that makes the life of any character any better.

A man’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn’t like a mother’s womb. It won’t bleed. It won’t stretch to make room for you.

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

What I mean to say is we will keep going in circles, moving in the same jungle, unless we realise that this is a pattern being followed blindly. Why, after more than 100 years of reforms, are we at the same place again?

Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to talk or recite poetry aloud anymore, even in their own houses. There are numerous laws against their education and employment but not enough against domestic violence and harassment. It has been 18 years since A Thousand Splendid Suns was first published but nothing has changed. The situation for women living in Afghanistan has somehow become worse than it was 18 years ago because of  the new morality laws given by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And this is not limited to just some middle eastern countries. This stands tall for parts of India you and I would still dare not visit. Why are women still subjugated to the same laws (if not constitutionally then socially)? Why are there headlines of rape and discrimination that no one can guess the dates of ?Why are we still debating this after more than a hundred years of suffrage? The answer is clear and it will not change with laws. It will only change when we start being friends and not foes, when we realise that internal misogyny will do us no good and when we come to the consensus that we are not fighting against but with each other. I know it sounds very basic but the most complex problems require basic changes. And more so now, since we are at an even worse position today. At least the first suffrage movement was not preceded by a history of hundred years of organised protest and change.

A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated…

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

It is time we start feeling ashamed for not speaking up. It is time we learn to raise our voices and not fret about cyber warriors operating through burrows of Twitter, Reddit and Instagram. It is time we demand unabashedly what is rightfully ours.

For more such stories about women and empowerment visit Her Campus at MUJ.

• afghanistan
• human rights
• Khalid Hosseini
• women
• women education