Our group is reading A Thousand Splendid Suns for our book club. There are many topics from our diverse learners class that are strong themes in the book. A Thousand Splendid Suns is about two Afgan women married to an abusive man and what happens to these women as they struggle to free themselves.
Strong themes throughout the book are religion and gender. Women's rights is almost nonexistent in this book and in the country. Women are forced to marry at very young ages and end their education to take care of their new husbands. Men are the rulers of the house and make all the decisions and consequences. Police are rarely involved in domestic issues and the men are free to punish the their wives however they desire. Reading this novel makes me appreciate my life and all its freedoms. It also makes me appreciate the man I have chosen to be part of my life and the respect he shows me everyday.
We recently discussed refugees during class. Students with similar backgrounds as the women in the novel could be in our classroom. We will never know for sure, but we need to be sensitive of the diverse backgrounds of our students and their histories to which we cannot relate. Teachers cannot assume all our students know certain parts of our culture because they may not have been exposed to it or have not lived here all their lives.
Religion is another prevalent theme in the book. The Islamic religion controls many aspects in the lives of the Muslim community in A Thousand Splendid Suns, including empowering the male. This is a vast difference from The United States where we have freedom of religion. It is also shocking to realize this lifestyle continues today in middleastern countries. A Thousand Slendid Suns chronicles the treatment of women in Afganistan today.
Overall, A Thousand Splendid Suns makes the reader feel sorrow for the women who endure that lifestyle today and grateful for the liberties that women have today in many other countries around the world.
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