The Role of Women in A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Rape of Shavi - Research Paper Example

The Role of Women in A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Rape of Shavi Introduction Human societies and cultures around the world follow a set of norms and ‘stereotypes’, particularly regarding the women’s role. Since ages, women in various societies and cultures, irrespective of their geographical location and economic status, were considered as the homemakers, whose solitary duty was to carry out the household works as well as take care of her husband and children. Men only took the all important responsibility of earning the livelihood for the family through one profession or other, thereby gaining the upper-hand. That is, with the women ‘closed’ behind the walls of their homes without any career of their own, they had to depend on the financially supporting men. Thus, women were subjugated due to their physical, emotional and even economical weakness. This subjugation of women inside their homes also extended to the social scene, where also, the women were not given prominence. These age-old practices were protested by women during various periods of history. However, they faced a lot of resistance and even violence to these protests. Nowadays many societies have opened up, and thus many women have a good professional career, with incidences of female sex discrimination decreasing. Still, there are societies and cultures especially in the Third World Countries, which continue to suppress their women, leading to different reactions from them. Writers from these societies have focused on these subjugation and suppression of women, and how they reacted to it, in the form of fiction. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and The Rape of Shavi by Buchi Emecheta are two such fictional works, which primarily focused on how women in the society or cultures of Afghanistan and Africa were suppressed by the men, and how they reacted to it. So, this paper will discuss the role of women in these two plays. Role of Women in A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini is an Afghani by birth but migrated to United States as a teenager. His early influences in Afghanistan led to his hugely successful first novel, The Kite Runner. A Thousand Splendid Suns is not clearly an autobiographical, like in the case of The Kite Runner. However, after hearing a lot of about Afghan women through various mediums and influenced by their plight during the Taliban regime, Hosseini came up with A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini has this say about his influence and inspiration, “I would like readers to walk away with a sense of empathy for Afghans, and more specifically for Afghan women, on whom the effects of war and extremism have been devastating.” (Formy-Duval). So, Hosseini’s novel focuses or fictionalizes the suppression of two women, Mariam and Laila and how they react to it. As these two female characters are mainly featured throughout the novel, their lives in the war ravaged country of Afghanistan represent the women’s role in A Thousand Splendid Suns. One of the protagonists is Mariam, an illegitimate child born to a rich businessman and a poor servant. Mariam, as a small girl, was eager to meet her father who visits her only once a week, as he had other families as well. She is unaware of her illegitimate status. “At that time, Mariam did not understand. She did not know what this word harami-bastard-meant.” (Hosseini 4). She enjoys the company of her father and believes all the stories uttered by her father. However, after the death of her mother, which happens due to an innocent action of Mariam, her life changes drastically. Her father unable to keep her in his house marries her to Rasheed, a middle-aged shoemaker. Rasheed treats Mariam with contempt and disregard. Mariam, the innocent girl becomes a terrorized wife who lives in a constant fear of her husband’s violent outbursts, “his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his ……. confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not”. (Hosseini 67). Mariam leads a miserable life with her abusive husband, but bears with her suffering, as she had no other option. In Afghanistan of those times, women were severely suppressed, without any avenue to express their freedom. For them, expressing their freedom through any means is least of their concerns, as sizable portion of the women population have to fight theirs suppressive and even abusive male family members, including their fathers, husbands and even their sons. “Plight of women in such patriarchal societies where they are initially dependent on their fathers, husbands and in later years, their sons, for their every need and where such treatment is a way of life and not seen as a violent crime against women.” (Venkatesh). Apart from physically abusing her, her husband puts her under more mental trauma, as he brings in his second wife Laila, the other main female protagonist of the novel. Laila, a teenaged girl of Tajik origin, lives in the same neighborhood and was in love with a boy named Tariq. However, when Kabul was bombarded with rockets during the conflict, she loses her entire family. With Tariq also supposed to be dead, the injured Laila was first taken in by Rasheed and then he married her. Initially, Mariam looks at Laila with disdain. However, Mariam changes her attitude and accepts Laila as her friend, when she discovers that Laila is pregnant. From a battered wife, Mariam goes on to become the guardian of Laila and her child. Her life, which was devoid of any aim, becomes meaningful when she finds a loving friend in Laila. With both the women facing both physical and mental abuses of their husband Rasheed, and with no other relative or friend to help them, they bond together to support each other. “Mariam and Laila differ in age, ethnicity, birthright and social class. They both, and for different reasons, finish up unhappily married to the same man, Rasheed, older than both combined, brutish, bigoted and sadistic” (Spires). That is, Mariam and Laila unite in their struggle against their husband and the deteriorating conditions of their country. As their struggle intensifies, Mariam and Laila’s friendship grows deeper. The love for the friend aids Mariam in regaining her self-respect which she had lost after her marriage to Rasheed. This support for one another even goes to the extent of Mariam killing Rasheed, when he threatens Laila’s life. After Mariam was executed by the Taliban, Laila find ways to survive with the help of her supposed dead lover, Tariq. Both of them, along with the two children (one ‘born’ to Tariq and other to Rasheed) reach safer locations in Pakistan. Although, she faced a lot of suppression and abuses at the hand of Rasheed, she was able to survive and was able to live a contented life with Tariq. So, this is “more than a story of survival in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two indomitable women” (Formy-Duval). Women’s Role in The Rape of Shavi Buchi Emecheta started writing her novels after her marriage ended, and so many of her works had a lot of personal influence and were autobiographical in nature. However, the most notable exception is The Rape of Shavi, which is a fictional work, set in the fictional African country of Shavi. Shavi was supposed to be located on the edge of the Saharan desert, with people living traditionally as well as happily, without any outside influence. “Under the benevolent rule of fat, laconic King Patayon, Shavi's people live happily by the shores of the Ogene lakes, tending their cows and date palms.” (Kakutani). Their happiness was a result of no discord between the citizens of the country. That is, there was no suppression by any of them against their fellow men and even fellow women, as they all have sworn to their King against indulging in such acts. “The king and his men had sworn with their life blood that no one should oppress or use his position to treat the other subhumanly.” (Emecheta 3). However, the perfectly built social structure, particularly the good positions given to the women, comes ‘crashing down’, with the crashing of a plane carrying Europeans. These passengers, who survive the crash, were actually fleeing from a supposed nuclear holocaust in their home country. After they crash-land in Shavi, the Shavians were not convinced that these people are humans at all, believing them to be aliens from outer space. After initially refusing any medical attention, food as well as shelter, they start to believe that the Europeans could be Angels from the heaven, who needs to be taken care. “(They) distrust the leprous, albino monkeys at first…, but eventually they become convinced that, because of the flaming bird they arrived in, they are angels from Heaven sent to test their hospitality as well as deliver gifts that will free them from starvation and drought.” (Kelly). This somewhat cordial atmosphere between the natives and the foreigners starts to deteriorate, when a women, that too, a Princess-to-be, was raped by a European. In the aftermath of the rape, the women power in the novel comes to the fore. Ronje, a Dane living in the village after the crash, rapes Ayoko, the girl who was to be betrothed to the Prince. This creates a lot of furor among the Shavians, as they want to severely punish him for touching and physically assaulting a Princess-to-be. This is when; the women of Shavi take the lead and try to solve the problem of one of their ilk. “The novel also serves essentially to show how Ayoko's rape by Ronje, a Dane living temporarily in the village of Shavi following an airplane crash, is brilliantly handled by the women, as it is a problem beyond the men.” (Parekh and Jagne 151). Although, the men were eager and angry to wreck vengeance on Ronje, the women take the initiative and punish Ronje by themselves. As a form of exhibiting their unity, solidarity and even ingenuity, the women take Ronje to the Ime Oja Hills, and there, they bind him in a large fishing net. By taking him to that isolated place and by binding him, they wanted him to be thrown as the eating meal for the desert vultures. Through this act, Emecheta shows how the women can unite among themselves and take action against anyone, who has violated their fellow woman. “Emecheta’s revisionist thrust insists that although the experiences of women are different from those of men, they are no less heroic.” (Parekh and Jagne 151). Apart from playing this heroic role, the women particularly Ayoko’s mother give Ayoko apt support in the aftermath of rape, as she was an innocent lady who was assaulted by a ‘marauding animal’. That is, all these years before the arrival of the Europeans, the Shavians did not indulged in any violent acts. They were not even exposed to many negative characteristics of humans. So, their pure and innocent living got assaulted by a foreigner. Thus, putting the entire blame on Ronje and his ‘inhumane’ behavior, Ayoko’s mother fully supports and consoles her. “She had raised her in the culture of the land, taught her what was right and wrong without any shades of gray. For the first time, she was confronted with human dirt, evil, indignity and violation.” (Emecheta 97) Apart from exhibiting their unity while punishing Ronje, women in Shavi also asserted in the course of the novel, how they adhere to their traditions without letting any foreign intrusion. This adherence to tradition was also visible in their strong following of their traditional form of medicine. That is, when one Shavian woman had a breach birth and other women are taking care of her, one European female who is also a doctor tried to aid them, or if viewed from another perspective, tried to ‘impose’ them with her Western medicine. Without trying to understand the Shavian women’s procedure and also without knowing their experience in handling these kinds of situation during childbirth, she tried to perform Caesarian section. Here again, the Shavian women exhibiting their solidarity and importantly adhering to their traditional methods, shooed away the European female doctor. This strong willed act of the Shavian women even made the European female to realize how she was wrong in imposing her own practice, without understanding whether the practice of the native people will work or not. “…the birth is performed naturally in a squatting position, and everything ends up okay. Later she beats herself up for having fooled herself into thinking that her medical expertise would be superior to tradition” (Kelly). Although, the Europeans leave Shavi after coming to know that their land was not destroyed by any nuclear disaster, King’s son Asogba also leave with them. After being exposed to various negative characteristics of the humans in Western world, he returns with a corrupted mindset and in turn corrupts the Shavian society. Even while, he spreads the sexual disease of syphilis, which he got from Ayoko (who in turn got it from Ronje during the rape) among the Shavians and contaminates the population, the moral fabric of the Shavian society also gets contaminated and destructed by the violent actions of Asogba. Thus, with the foreigners as well as the local prince ‘wrecking’ Ayoko and the metaphorical equivalent, Shavi’s peaceful and happy land, the Shavians decide to correct the wrongs and prevent the land from being ‘raped’ again. “(Shavi) has been raped once, we must never allow her to be raped again” (Emecheta178). Conclusion From the above analysis, it is clear that women characters in both the novels have played prominent and plot-orienting roles. The character of Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns undergoes several changes throughout the novel. Mariam’s childhood is filled with hope and enthusiasm, but her marriage ends all her hopes of a better life. Mariam’s attitude towards life changes for good when Laila enters her life. From Laila’s perspective, after undergoing a lot of torture, the strong and at the same time sacrificing action of Mariam helped her live a contented life. “Two women develop a real bond, a relationship that shares out the pain, disappointment and unfulfilled dreams of their marital confinement. There is tragedy aplenty and ultimate resolution of a kind” (Spires). Likewise in The Rape of Shavi, the whole society and its women lived a corrupt free, happy and innocent life, until the Europeans arrived. Even then, the women exhibited strong unity and heroism in punishing an individual, who violated the innocence and purity of a Shavian woman. In addition, they also held on to their traditions particularly their traditional form of medicine, without falling in for the advanced foreign practices. Although, the women played a subordinate role to the men as far as social and political structures are concerned, they participated in key decisions of the society, thereby bringing in an alternative, compassionate social vision that both traditional and neocolonial societies lack. (Hawley 155). Works Cited Emecheta, Buchi. The Rape of Shavi. London: Ogwugwu Afor, 1983. Formy-Duval, John M. “A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.” About.com, n. d. Web. 19 Dec 2010. Hawley, John Charles. Encyclopedia of postcolonial studies. London: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001 Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. London: Riverhead, 2007. Kakutani, Michiko. “Books of the Times; AFRICA DESPOILED.” The New York Times, 23 Feb 1985. Web. 19 Dec 2010. Kelly, Stephen D. “Buchi Emecheta's The Rape of Shavi.” Bibliophonic, 19 Nov 2008. Web. 19 Dec 2010. Parekh, Pushpa Naidu and Siga Fatima Jagne. Postcolonial African writers: a bio- bibliographical critical sourcebook. London: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998. Spires, Philip. “A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.” Articlesbase, 28 Jan 2008. Web. 19 Dec 2010. Venkatesh, Bhuvana. “Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns.” Chill Breeze, n. d. Web. 19 Dec 2010. Read More