A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

The story starts telling about a 15-year-old Afghanistan girl Mariam living in a village, Gul Daman with her mother but not her father. Her Father Jalil is a rich man living in the city with another family and comes to visit Mariam sometimes. She loves it every time her father comes and visits her, he also took her to the city once to show a Pinocchio movie in the cinema. Once, she decided to go to the city by herself and meet her father, but her Mother didn’t like the idea. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her husband, as she used to be the maid of his house and have Mariam, but after Mariam born, he ditches both of them in the village alone. Mariam’s mother raises her all alone and even gives her an education in Islam from Mullah Fazlullah. She threatened Mariam that if she visited her father in the city, she would hang her up and die, but with her curiosity and excitement, Mariam didn’t notice at all. She left for the city to surprise her father, but no one opened the door for her.

When she came back home, she found her mom dead, hanging to the ceiling of the room. She was shocked by her mother’s death, then her dad came and took her to the city. She met her stepmother, and step-siblings with no excitement like before. Not only that, but she couldn’t help herself, and missed her mother. Some days later, her father arranges a simple wedding for her and marries her to a Rasheed named man 20 years older than Mariam. She doesn’t want to marry him, but she has no choice, she starts hating her father. She thought about how her mother said it was right that no one is faithful to her more than her mother. Then she left for another city, Kabul, with her husband. Mariam was a young and innocent 15-year-old girl, while Rasheed was a 40-year-old man. He runs a shoes shop which didn’t make him wealthy at all but enough for two of them, Mariam didn’t know house chores and cooking, but she tried her best to go through it. After some time passed, Rasheed started throwing his food and using violence over Mariam. She can’t have a baby, this makes Rasheed more violent day by day. She has no one to go and tell how Rasheed treats her. He didn’t allow her to go outside to meet others, other than a few times. Her life continued with the same pattern of sacred and violent life for many years.

Now the story of another girl is explained as Laila, she is one of the prettiest girls in her school and everyone loves her hazel eyes. Her father wanted her to be educated because he believed that it is important for women. She was his beloved daughter, he once said, “You are the Noor of my eyes and Sultan of my heart.” On the other hand, her mother was a little strange with her. She always misses her older sons Ahmad and Noor who were serving in the military, and she waited for them every day. Laila has a friend Tariq whom she loves so much and he does too.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and war started, bombs and missiles started hitting the houses of Afghanistan, where many people died every day. Pakistan, the neighboring country, opened its door for the sake of the people living in Afghanistan until the war ended. Many citizens moved to Pakistan to save their lives. Tariq and his family were one of them, while Laila’s mother was not ready to leave, as she loved his house and memories of his son there. Laila was broken because he was detached from her lover and risking her life while living there. Some days later, the news arrives of Ahmad and Noor death. Laila’s father decided to leave for Pakistan together, and then the missile hit their house. When Laila woke up, she found herself in a different house, it was Rasheed and Mariam’s house. They told Laila that her parents died, and she was barely breathing when they rescued her. She was also told some days later that Tariq, his lover, also died as everyone in the area knew about their love story. Laila was traumatized by one after another pain. Rasheed asks Mariam to let him marry Laila as it is not convenient for him to take care of an unknown (Na Mahram) girl in her house. Mariam didn’t want him to marry Laila but agreed sometime later as she was warm-hearted. Laila was 14 years old when she married Rasheed and had a 19-year age difference with Mariam.

At the start, Mariam and Laila never get along together due to Mariam disapproving of Laila in her heart as Rasheed second wife, but they start having a good relationship after Laila had a baby girl Aziza with Rasheed and finds her caring and loving, Mariam would give her some baby clothes which she had made for her own child but never had a chance to have one. Both of them started having a sister-like bond, sharing every secret with each other. She feels bad for Mariam, still beaten by Rasheed. Laila had another baby boy, Zalmai, a few years later, which was beloved by Rasheed. He would give attention and love to Zalmai but ignore Aziza because she was a girl. Rasheed sent Aziza to an orphanage by saying that he didn’t have enough to feed everyone. Laila would visit Aziza many times, one day he found Tariq in front of her house door. She was shocked that he was alive, she told her about his fake death news and said to go away he will be in danger because her husband, Rasheed also started having doubts about Laila having visitors. Rasheed became more violent than before, he would beat Mariam with a belt, and lock her for weeks in a dark store room with no light and no food.

There was a time when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. They would not let females leave the house without any male (Mahram), forcefully make every man have a beard and pray in a mosque, they would beat those who don’t follow them, and kill them in front of everyone but no one was there to help the helpless people. They were forcing the religion on people, they were representing Islam terribly. One day, Mariam and Laila planned to leave their house and travel to Pakistan to save themselves from Rasheed. They somehow manage to leave the house with their children and reach the immigration platform, but they were caught by some unworthy person and sent back to their house. When they reach home, Rasheed was like a monster and start beating Laila badly for helping Mariam and being her partner, when Mariam realized that Laila’s life is in danger she grab a shovel and whacked Rasheed’s head with it until he died. Mariam knows that she has committed murder, so she sent Laila and her children with Tariq away from her and was sentenced for jail.

Laila and Tariq start having a beautiful life in Pakistan. Believing to have another baby girl, whom Laila wants to name Mariam. She told Tariq that Aziza is his daughter actually and Zalmai is of Rasheed, and she misses Mariam a lot. 2 years later, when the Taliban was at rest and the war ended, they moved back to Afghanistan. Laila thought of visiting Mariam in jail, hoping to see her once at least. But she was sentenced to death. Laila then visits her hometown Gul Daman where she finds out that Mariam’s mentor Mullah Fazlullah is dead as is her father Jalil too. A man Hamza gives Laila a box, saying it is for Mariam from her father.

She opened it and found a video cassette of Pinocchio, which she didn’t understand why it was there, a bag of some money and a letter. She read a letter where she found out that her father was asking Mariam for forgiveness, telling her how his whole family died in the war, and he is not wealthy anymore like before. He gave a bag of some money as an inheritance, the only thing he left with. Also told Mariam that he is going to die soon due to illness and wants only for once her to come and visit him. Laila found the letter very emotional and heart-touching and realized that the innocent and kind daughter that Jalil wanted to see was already dead and had a miserable life enduring pain all the time. Indeed, people do not acknowledge the qualities and potential of women. Men are forcefully empowering these innocent women and hiding them from society. It was the best quote that tells the main purpose of the story A Thousand Splendid Suns: “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”