Sons are preferred from girls

When they were out together, he walked alongside her, one hand gripping her by the elbow. For Laila, being out in the streets had become an exercise in avoiding injury. Her eyes were still adjusting to the limited, grid like visibility of the burqa, her feet still stumbling over the hem. She walked in perpetual fear of tripping and falling, of breaking an ankle stepping into a pothole. Still, she found some comfort in the anonymity that the burqa provided. She wouldnt be recognized this way if she ran into an old acquaintance of hers. She wouldnt have to watch the surprise in their eyes, or the pity or the glee, at how far she had fallen, at how her lofty aspirations had been dashed Hosseini, 2008:225-226. The quotation above shows Laila‟s feeling when she wears it. She feels weird to the limitation of the sight and her feet stumble over the hem. She also feels uncomfortable to walk under the burqa. Despite the sufferings that she has to go through, Rasheed forces her to wear it. It is because in Rasheed‟s standpoint, a husband has a right to control her wife with regards to her activities and even ideas. A good wife should keep her honor and pride for her husband by wearing burqa. About thirty years later, it becomes a legal command from the Taliban, who occupies the city, that all women in the country should wear burqa when they are outside their homes. They also forbid women to wear makeup, jewelry, charming clothes, and painting their nails. Here is the Taliban rule over women‟s rights to dress up. You will not, under any circumstance, show your face. You will cover with burqa when outside. If you do not, you will be severely beaten. Cosmetics are forbidden. Jewelry is forbidden. You will not wear charming clothes. You will not speak unless spoken to. You will not make eye contact with men. You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten. You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger Hosseni, 2008:271. The Taliban also includes the punishment if women break the rule. They will beat women for not wearing burqa and cut their fingers for painting their nails. The rule limits women from expressing themselves and being as beautiful as they want. Under the burqa, women are nothing but the walking corpses with dark color. They are neither women nor human.

e. Women’s mobility is limited

Living in a patriarchal society means living with great handicap for women. Society considers men superior so that they take control over women‟s lives. They make many limitations for women; one of them is limitation of mobility. Women cannot go around the places they want because they are forbidden to travel unless they have male‟s guardianship. A worse limitation of mobility is even experienced by Mariam. Rasheed even forbids Mariam to blend with his guests. When he invites his friends, he tells Mariam to stay at her room upstairs until the visitors leave their house. They had Eid visitors at the house. They were all men, friends of Rasheeds. When a knock came, Mariam knew to go upstairs to her room and close the door. She stayed there, as the men sipped tea downstairs with Rasheed, smoked, chatted. Rasheed had told Mariam that she was not to come down until the visitors had left Hosseini, 2008:81. Raheed‟s command to Mariam to stay at her room is a form of women‟s subordination in which women are inferior to men so that men can control them, limit their mobility and hamper them from socializing.