Reflection of personal reading 2/3/24

 

  • “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a book based on true events that occurred in the ‘90s and early 2000s. It is set in the Middle East in the nation of Afghanistan and examines the lives of a woman who got promised to marry a man when she was 8 years old because her grandmother and mother had passed away, and her birth father didn't want her. He had 3 other wives and several children. Even if I had a lot of children I would still be there and support them because having kids is preventative. The little girl ended up having to stay with her husband who was more than fifty years older than her. She did not have the ability to birth children, so he treated her awfully. He was mean to her and made her do everything around the home. He would beat her and during this time period in Afghanistan, women were not allowed out of the house without a man. There were many other restrictions for both women and men because Afghanistan was in a time of war. Eventually another young woman who has no family or friends left because they all died in warfare came to live with the couple. She was about twenty years younger than the older woman. The two women originally did not like each other but got closer over time. Unfortunately, the husband still wanted kids at almost 70 years old so he got the younger girl pregnant. He asked for her hand in marriage and also told her that her best friend from her childhood was dead. It is incredible that this kind of evil exists in the world. How can people be so selfish and cruel to children and women? When reading this book, I was constantly surprised at the cultural and societal differences between women in Afghanistan not even twenty years ago and the women here. This story was also heartbreaking because the younger girl was able to get away from the old man, but the older one had to give up her potential to get away from him to achieve this. 

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