Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is a tale of two Afghanistani women named Laila and Mariam who got married to the same man. Maraiam a teenager from Herat was forced to marry Rasheed after her mother passed away. Laila was born almost a generation after Mariam and had to marry Rasheed after he rescued her when her home was rocketed and her family was killed. It follows the story of the two women living through the wars in Afghanistan. They faced many different governments and had to live with the fact that they were women during that time.
This book really goes into depth about what it means to be a woman, especially under the strict rules that Afghanistan had placed for them. It showed the sacrifices they had to make and really uncovered the life women had back then. Laila and Mariam were often abused by Rasheed but they couldn’t do anything about it, so they had to endure the pain and continue living their life that was somewhat non-existent.
I would give A Thousand Splendid Suns five stars because it had a fascinating and powerful story. It was very hard to put the book down, with the war getting worse and problems arising, it left me on edge to know what would happen next. The way Hosseini described the characters and their emotions really left a powerful message. This book really focused on the strength of women and really showed what they are capable of. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to read a book about women’s rights under the Taliban in Afghanistan.