A Thousand Splendid Peculiarities

Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Photo cred MEEE.

So as I was doing my research in the library today, I realized how heavily I focus on the author of the book I chose.  Khaled Hosseini.  I wondered if I could possibly bring in more of his works to support my thesis:Male authors are the most powerful in the feminist literary movement, as it is male authors that people take the most seriously; in Victorian England, Lewis Carroll wrote about a young girl that broke all social norms; in A Thousand Splendid Suns, it was Khaled Hosseini, a male author in a Middle Eastern culture, that wrote about the oppression of women.  Ironically enough, this shows why feminism is necessary: until women can write about their own problems and be taken seriously, the women of the world will almost always certainly have to rely on men to be the journalists and authors of their inequality.

I decided to revisit The Kite Runner, the first book that Khaled Hosseini had published. It was also the first of his that I had read, back in senior year of high school. While skimming it, I found a passage that I had found peculiar at the time. "Poison tongues would flap.  And she would bear the brunt of that poison, not me—I was fully aware of the Afghan double standard that favored my gender.  Not Did you see him chatting with her? but Woooooy! Did you see how she wouldn’t let him go?  What a lochak!” (Hosseini, 146).  In this passage, a young man is talking to a young women, asking for the whereabouts of her father.  Then he asks what book she is reading, and suddenly, all eyes in the marketplace turn to the two of them because they were "chatting."  I thought that this was an interesting interjection, but now I see the reason for it.  Hosseini was already aware of where he wanted to bring his writing next: to feminist Islamic issues.  And so, I wanted to gain a better understanding of Islamic feminism and its history.

A Thousand Splendid Pseudonyms

Photo credit Krista Edwards 2013.

I begin my essay with a simple question:

Why do male writers seem to dominate the literary world?  Even Joanne Rowling, famed author of the Harry Potter series, took on two male pseudonyms to publish her work: J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith.  In this essay, I explore why male writers have more success with feminist issues than female writers, especially in Middle Eastern literature.

            Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two Afghani women in 1980’s Afghanistan to present-day Afghanistan.  Khaled Hosseini had previously published The Kite Runner, a novel about the relationship between fathers and sons, something that would appeal to a Middle Eastern male audience.  After becoming a worldwide best-selling authors, he publishes A Thousand Splendid Suns, which tackles more serious topics such as how the law in the Islamic countries (that follow Shari’a law) treat women.  Hosseini does this because he knows that he is one of the few people in the world with the power to bring this to the world’s attention.  In Islamic countries that currently practice Shari’a law, women have no power.  For example, in Iran, a fourteen year old girl named Malala Yoosuf was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting women’s education.  Khaled Hosseini is perfectly aware of the problems surrounding women if they speak out; it is why he, as a feminist, feels it is necessary to write for the feminist cause.

A Thousand Splendid Venues to submit to.

LOL JK not a thousand more like three.

So, first things first.  I posted my question to my peers that commented on my original post on Facebook, and sadly, none of them responded.  So then I posted it to others that I thought might be interested in this topic.  To my surprise, I had three people respond that were very, very invested in Islamic feminism.

A Thousand Splendid Ideas

Now I feel really arrogant and conceited, because my ideas are not a thousand nor are they splendid!  But I think I am going somewhere with this!

start to 1/100 finish.

Originally I was thinking about comparing Victorian morals to Middle Eastern moral values today, but I knew that that wasn't exactly the most attention-grabbing paper topic.  It wasn't until we started undergoing all the research for this paper that I came up with a more interesting paper topic that I would like to research--why people take male authors more seriously in feminist literature.  When I started thinking about it, I noticed that there are many female authors that wrote under male pseudonyms (JK Rowling-her initialized name sounds androgynous, so really people don't know if she's male or female if they were just given "JK Rowling;" she also wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith when she published The Cuckoo's Calling, then there are the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, who wrote under Currer, Ellis and Acton.  Also, we can't forget Mary Anne Evans writing under the name of George Elliot.)  Although Khaled Hosseini is definitely a male author writing about female problems in society, I want to explore all angles of the male author writing about feminism, and why female writers can't write about feminism and still be taken seriously.

At any rate, I have a lot of more research and perspectives to look into. See my paper shell here.

A Thousand Splendid Friends on Facebook

Queen Rania of Jordan with Michelle Obama.  H.M. Queen Rania is one
of my role models, being a very progressive woman in the Middle East.
Creative Commons 2.5

Due to Western thoughts and ideas, feminism has progressed far in this nation and in other westernized nations. However, in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, and other Middle Eastern nations, the idea of feminism is all but foreign to them. The book I am studying, called A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, states, "Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman." (7) Do you find this to be true in American culture still? What about Middle Eastern culture (if you are a MESA major)?

I plan to circulate this on a private message forum on Facebook. Originally, I was a Middle Eastern Studies / Arabic (MESA) major, but I have since changed to English. However, I still have many of those friends in my friend group, but haven't talked to them in a long while, so it would be good to reconnect. Many of these friends have been to Jordan, Afghanistan, Syria, etc., as part of their major, so it would be good to get some insight. Furthermore, I plan to include some of the people who responded to my original post on Facebook to see what they might say, since they have already demonstrated an interest.

However, what about you? Do you think that women are often used as scapegoats for male accusations, which may or may not be entirely sound?

A Thousand Splendid Processes

Khaled Hosseini slowly tries to introduce feminism into his novels, knowing that if he blatantly states it, it would not be well-received by the educated Middle Eastern population--namely, men.

Key Passages:
"...Nana had been one of the housekeepers.  Until her belly began to swell.  When that happened, Nana said, the collective gasp of Jalil's family sucked the air out of Herat.  His in-laws swore blood would flow.  The wives demanded that he throw her out.  Nan's own father, who was a lowly stone carver in the nearby village of Gul Daman, disowned her.  Disgraced, he packed his things and boarded a bus to Iran, never to be seen or heard from again." (6)
"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman.  Always." (7)
"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." (89)
"I wonder," the young Talib said.  "God has made us differently, you women and us men.  Our brains are different.  You are not able to think like we can.  Western doctors and their science have proven this.  This is why we require only one male witness but two female ones." (324)

Analysis: Hosseini shows in the very beginning what the tone of this novel will be with the two passages on pages six and seven.  However, he doesn't touch on it again until well after the reader has fallen into the story and read the entire biography of Laila and Mariam, and by that point, the reader is clearly able to see the discrimination and mistreatment women are forced to go under.  For good measure, he includes the poem that the title line is taken from.  By doing this, Hosseini also underlines the main theme: the fact that men hide behind the women: "and the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."  Kabul, the city being talked about in this poem, is female.  The suns/sons aren't hiding behind her walls for protection; they are using her (and other women) as scapegoats to protect their pride and honor (re: page 6 passage).  Hosseini details this in the last pages of the novel; first in a conversation between a police officer and Mariam and Laila; then in the trial of Mariam (seen above); and last in her sentencing (not detailed here).