The Representation Of Afghan Women’s Resistance In Khalid Husseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Résumé: Khaled Husseini’s narrative A thousand splendid suns mirrors perfectly the history of his country Afghanistan that has been violated by a chain of different ideologies and many wars imposed on the country by force. The narrative, sheds light on the story of two women Mariam and Laila. Both characters in the novel are women of two different generations with different lives, Mariam is a poor illegitimate child who lives in the suburban, while Laila is born to educated parents at a enlightened time in Kabul’s history, but their struggle united their destiny in unexpected way. Thus, this paper is an attempt to portray the oppression and the subjugation of women in male-controlled society in Afghanistan, through analyzing the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns that have depicted how women challenged hard life conditions and all types of brutality under both patriarchal society and colonization, and how they end up finding their ways to survive, through the light of post-colonial feminist theories. This dissertation is divided into two chapters; the first one investigates how Afghan women’s position shifts during the turbulent history of the country, and it highlights the socio-political, cultural and traditional elements that plays a crucial role in the marginalization of afghan women. While, the second chapter seeks to study the dual struggle that major female characters experience throughout the novel. Starting with toxic male hegemony to a political mistreatment and abuse, and eventually demonstrating how they managed to resist and to grow that sense of sisterhood and solidarity.

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