THE MAIN FEMALE CHARACTERS’ STRUGGLE AGAINST TALIBAN LAWS AND PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM TO GET HAPPINESS IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS.

SUNS

THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of English Department Faculty of Letters and Humanities

UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya

By: Eka Wahyuni Reg. Number: A83211143

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY (UIN) SUNAN AMPEL

SURABAYA

2016

Wahyuni, Eka. 2016. The Main Female Characters’ Struggle Against Taliban Laws and Partriachal System to Get Happiness in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Letters and Humanities. State Islamic University Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

The Advisor : Itsna Syahadatud Dinnuriyah, M.A.

A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two Afghan women named Mariam and Laila as main female characters. Although they have different life in the beginnings, however war that happened in Afghanistan and government managed by regime Taliban makes their life change to be worse. This thesis focuses on analyzing the main female characters and their struggle to against the women oppression because of men figure. The aims of the thesis are to

reveal how the oppression to women and how main female characters’ struggle to face the

oppression from men characters around them as depicted in the novel. Since studying on woman, this thesis basically uses Feminism theory which mainly focuses on woman. Beside, inside the analysis the thesis also tries to correlate some points with Islamic views.

Inside Title Page ……… ii

Declaration Page ……… iii

Approval Sheet ……… iv

Examiner Sheet ……… v

Motto ………..……….. vi Dedication Sheet ………. vii

Acknowledgements ………...……. viii

Table of Contents ……….…….. x

Abstract ……… xii Intisari ………...… xiii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1Background of the Study ……… 1

1.2Statement of the Problem ………..……… 4

1.3Objective of the Study ………..…… 4

1.4Scope and Limitation ……….… 4

1.5Significance of the Study ……….….… 5

1.6Method of the Study ……….. 5

1.7Definition of Key Terms ……….…….… 6

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Framework ………..… 7

2.1.3 Character ……….……... 11

2.1.4 Characterization ………..…… 13

2.2 Review of Related Studies ………..… 15

CHAPTER III TALIBAN 3.1 Historical Background ………... 16

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS 3.1 Portrait of Main Characters as Victims ………..………… 20

3.1.1 Portrait of Mariam Jo’s Character ………...…. 20

3.1.2 Portrait of Laila’s Character ………...……… 26

3.1.3 How They are Victimized ………...……… 29

3.2 Women Struggle Against Women Discrimination in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns ……….……. 37

3.2.1 Mariam’s Struggle and How She is Getting Happiness ………..… 37

3.2.2 Laila’s Struggle and How She is Getting Happiness ………..………… 40

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ………..… 44

WORKS CITED ………. 48

APPENDIX SYNOPSIS ………. 50

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Literature is the particular kind of writing which is conceived with own

style and which aims to inspire an imagination and creative thought rather than

merely to convey information or express political or personal views (Goodman 7).

Through a literary work, an author shows a portrait of experience in human’s life

that can be understood and utilized by readers who get inspiration after reading it.

The authors has different way in writing literary works, he has his own style.

Sometimes the author writes based on the life experience that is faced by himself.

As like someone real stories or the historical problems that happened in a

country.

Literary works conceive many manifestations of ideology and imaginary

representation of actual historical existence (Claire 13).In a literary work some

authors convey the event and condition that happen based on the period

surrounding in composition of their literary work. So, every literary work has its

own historical background when it is produced (Gillespie 83). The authors draw

upon factual information in presenting scenes, events, and characters. They

attached an event that happen in real life to make readers more affectionate and

get profound knowledge about the historical event through it. Readers are easy to

Khaled Hosseini is an author who set against the background of

Afghanistan’s recent story. His first novel entitled Kite Runner and the second

novel is A Thousand Splendid Suns, his second novel story is adapted by details of

the two Afghan women whose lives are brought together through a series of tragic

events because of the patriarchal system, political issues and Islamic laws which

settled by Taliban that was applied in Afghanistan at that time. He attached the

political issues and war that was happened in 1960 to 2003 in Afghanistan

(http://wsws.org).

Afghanistan is a country with Muslim majority. Eighty- four percent of

Afghans practice the Sunni, fifteen percent are Shi’a and the rest are Hindus,

Jews, etc (Skaine 7). The fact that majority people in Afghanistan are Muslim, it

makes some factions have the desire to make rule of the country based on Islamic

laws. The law is considered as influential things in women’s life. There are many

laws which consider as the discrimination form to women figure. Women are not

allowed to go to school and work. They are also prohibited to leave the home

without being accompanied by male relatives, all of those laws are called Taliban

laws (www. asia.knoji.com). Instead of the Taliban laws, the discrimination form

to women is patriarchal society which applied there.

In patriarchal society, woman has considered as weak person (Tyson 83).

They do not have any power to struggle and solve any problem that appears in her

life. These views make women become weaker and sometime also form their

Through the novel entitled A Thousand Splendid Suns which is a

masterpiece of writer Khaled Hosseini an Afghan-United States, he writes the

result of his interview to two Afghan women about the history and issues happen

there. This novel was published on May 22, 2007 in the United States

(www.wikipedia.org/A Thousand Splendid Suns). This novel tells the story of two

Afghan women who lives under the Taliban laws, Mariam Jo and Laila. In the

beginning of story, it tells about the struggles of woman named Mariam. Mariam

is an illegitimate daughter or called harami of a rich man named Jalil. Mariam’s

mother is a former maid at the Jalil’s house but because the public does not

recognize the existence of harami children in a family, so Mariam and her mother

have to step aside and have a life of its own. The various miseries of Mariam

faced in her life, starting the fact that she is not recognized as a child by Jalil’s

family, her mother’s death, arranged marriage with Rasheed by Jalil’s wives, and

continued with repeated miscarriage because of Jalil’s cruel. In the midst of her

anguish, happiness appears in her life through the figure of a girl named Laila

who later will change Mariam’s life. Rasheed entraps Laila into marriage. That

becomes a big problem later is when Laila born a daughter not a son that like

Rasheed wants. Because of it, Rasheed is extremely aggressive.

The similarity between Mariam and Laila’s destiny makes their relationship

closer, then it also makes them finally find the happiness of their life. Mariam

needs someone to be loved and Laila needs a love. It inspires this research to

on the explanation above, this research is interested in analyzing the issues raise in

A Thousand Splendid Suns novel.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Based on the background of study above, the problem of the study are as

follows:

1. How are Mariam and Laila portrayed as victims in the novel AThousand

Splendid Sun?

2. How do main characters struggle to reach their happiness depicted in the

novel?

1.3 Objective of Study

In accordance with the statement of the problems, this study has two

objectives that can be stated follows:

1. To explain the portrayal of Mariam and Laila as victims of patriarchal

society.

2. To reveal the main characters struggle to reach their happiness depicted in

the novel.

1.4 Scope and Limitation

This study will be limited to the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. The study

of gender that is caused Taliban laws and patriarchal system in Afghanistan as

depicted in the novel.

1.5 Significance of Study

The research is expected to be significant to the theoretical and practical

functions. Theoretically, this research will enrich the readers’ development of

knowledge in the literary theory especially theory which related to woman. While

practically, this research hopefully can give useful contribution for the readers in

understanding the content of A Thousand Splendid Suns concerning in the

feminist theory to help the reader in expressing the meaning of the feminist in the

A Thousand Splendid Suns. The research can be a helpful reference for other

researchers who are interested in the same theory and focus.

1.6 Method of Study

This research used library research and qualitative is applied. Instead of using

library, this research also uses online researches in the process of collecting data

for this study. In presenting the analysis, the research select the data in form of

narration and conversation from the novel related to the problem, its also takes

from books or articles from library or internet. The research follows the following

steps:

1. Reading the novel to get the complete and well understanding on the

whole story.

2. Selecting and collecting the data in form narration and conversation from

3. Analyzing the data that is appropriated with statement of problems, then

each point is analyzed using Feminism theory, which refers to the

objectives of the study.

4. Making conclusion based on the result of data analysis.

1.7 Definition of Key Terms

This allows readers to know exactly what this research is referring to and

intending to investigate. There are some key terms used in this research, they are

listed below:

1. Victim :

2. Oppression :

3. Taliban :

CHAPTER I

Exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust

manner, it can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing,

the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily

burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions

or people, and anxiety (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression). Anyone who is harmed by another, a person who suffers any

other injury, loss, or damage as a result of a voluntary

undertaking (http://www.definitions.net/definition/victim).

Taliban’s meaning is seeker, religious student and in Persian, it means seeker of truth, that is association of university students

and young man that brought up in war period at the evacuation

camps. This association that determined laws based on Shari’a,

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical Framework

This research tends to utilize some theories. The analysis focuses on the

main characters in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. This research tries to

reveal issues of women’s figures as victim of Taliban laws in Afghanistan and their struggle to confront it, for this reason feminism theory is chosen. To support

the analysis, this study will use new criticism focusing on character and

characterization. Those theories are explained as follows:

1.1.1 Feminism

In analyzing a literary work, it is necessary to utilize a tool. The tool

needed in analyzing a literary work is a theory. Based on the history, women were

not only low in education and financial, but they also had to struggle in against a

male ideology condemning them to virtual silence and obedience (Habib 667).

Men are superior to women, they always get the first priority and it is because of a

reality that shows from the strength and power men more dominant than women.

Meanwhile, women are placed in second range. The role of women is just to help

and to support to men. Woman’s social status and economic depend on the man,

in most aspects of woman’s life depend on his good will (Gorsky 2). It means that

education is, nor how smart they are. In contrast, it depends on their husband’s social status and how he treats women itself.

Some years ago, most women were not educated. As the consequence,

they were not well prepared for taking a job or a career because it was assumed

that their future lay in family lives (Gorham 24). Some women think that they

should be able to stay at home and raise their children only, they think that having

some education to get job or to be a women career are not their necessary, they

think that their life depends on their husband or family. The system like this is

known as patriarchal system. Patriarchal system is a system where men are in

authority over women in all aspects of society

(http://study.com/patriarchal-system). In a patriarchal system, men make all decisions in both society and in

their family unit, hold all positions of power and authority.

Patriarchal system is defined as a society that is organized and ran by men.

Men make the rules and dominate in business and government. Men will consider

their women as the accessories of the house that can be kept and who must work

to serve the day and night (Goldberg 37). The patriarchal system is traditional

thought of society and political issues happen there as causes of some oppression

to women.

Nowadays, the condition starts to change. Women are struggling for their

rights to get equal treatment in all fields. The women’s movement begins in the

early 1960s and 1970s in United States, it is recognized as the “second wave” of

including family, sexuality and work. While the first wave feminism of the 19th

and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal right like right to vote

(www.britannica,com).Feminist movement does not agree that differences

appearance between men and women such as physical size, shape and body

chemistry are considered as the factor that can make men naturally superior to

women (Tyson 86). Feminist critics hold many different opinions on all of the

issues of discipline they examine. It has purpose to promote social change of

traditional thought of women that distinguishes between women and men in many

aspects of life, such as the equality to get education, get job, etc. As a

consequence of all the statement it is said that Feminism is one way to end the

oppression and exploitation on women.

Feminism in general position, not necessarily confined to woman, has to

do with the advocacy and encouragement for equal rights and opportunities for

woman politically, socially, psychologically, personally and aesthetically

(Holman 201). It means that feminism is a word that people usually associate with

the effort to change women’s life and to promote the equality of women and men in all fields of their life. Women should have similar equality of power and status

with men. In the social aspect, feminism also attempts to be a new definition of

women’s sense of themselves to change their statues as second class to achieve

the equality, to desire recognition as independent people and to respect them

being as women. Hence, feminism puts women equally as men. Their status is not

want and men cannot restrict them with their power because women have their

right to do that.

In this case, victimization issues often happen to women as the easy prey

because they are supposed as the weak figure and cannot fight back. As one of the

examples is Taliban laws in Afghanistan. In A Thousand Splendid Suns novel,

women as the victim are exploiting them more and more. The existence of

patriarchal ideology and the Taliban laws as the foundation of victimization

toward women appears on this novel.

1.1.2 New Criticism

New criticism was a standard method of literary studies during 1940s until

1960s (Tyson 135). Tyson noted that, biographical historical criticism was

popular among literary critics (136). Prior to the emergence of new criticism,

people analyze a literary work based on the author’s background. In the other

words, people do not deal with the content of the literary text to get an

understanding. Instead, they learnt the author’s life and social background for they

believed that the literary text is the portrayal of the author’s life.

New criticism focuses its analysis on the literary text, instead of on the

author’s life and time (Tyson 136). Then readers’ in using new criticism to criticize literary work personal life or background will affect their assumption

about the literary text when they have emotional bond with the text, the clear

New criticism is theory which emphasize more of analysis of text meaning

which supported by the evidence of language of the text itself, such as images,

symbols, metaphors, rhyme, meter, point of view, setting, characterization, plot,

etc (Tyson 137).It analysis that marked by concentration on the language,

imagery, and emotional or intellectual tensions in literary works, also the formal

elements such as rhyme, meter, characterization and plot are used to identify the

theme of the text.

1.1.3 Character

Character is important thing that should be included in a story. A character

is presumably an imagined person who inhabits a story. Character is the fictional

people that become a part of the action of a literary work (Judith 39). Character is

the important intrinsic element of fiction which takes most part in the story. In

order to interest, characters need to be as real as possible. The author creates some

kinds of characters with different personalities and name, it is to distinguish a

character and the other character in a story. Through character's presence, the

whole story can be easily understood by the readers.

A successful author recreates the actual life throughout that particular

character itself which is enables the reader to see presentation, it is through the

dialogue, action and interaction between each character in the story (Jacob

134-135). A character cannot stand on its own without presence of the other

characters. A life story will show through some interactions of each character in

so readers can identify and judge the personalities of each character from their

interaction implied in a dialogue, instead of, readers can know how the situation

that happen in the story from conversation each character in a literary work.

Interpreting character’s moral qualities can be performed through analyzing the characters’ speaking, doing, and thinking. By exploring the characters, readers can get some moral lessons implemented in real life since

character exactly possesses a strategic position to deliver messages, values and all

things that author wants to give to the readers (Nurgiyantoro 167). Characters

become the objects of the readers’ curiosity and fascination, affection and dislike,

also admiration and condemnation. They are real enough to live in memories of

readers until the story end. Through characters an author conveys a moral value in

a story. So, character represent a person becomes interested in a story.

Characters in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and minor,

static and dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the center of the

story’s action and theme. Major character also dominated the story, the character appears in the whole of a story, although main character not appears in all the plot

in a story but indirectly it is related to or possibly related with the main character.

Main character impressed as the dominate figure in a story. While minor

characters are supporting major character, minor character appears only in some

parts of a story and only to strengthen major character or when correlation with

major character has (Diyanni 54). It means that, main characters of a story are the

human personalities that become familiar to the reader and the minor characters as

The function of character is divided in two, protagonist and antagonist.

The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with an

antagonist may spark the story’s conflict (54). In most of the literary works, the author placed major character as the protagonist. The protagonists always get

sympathies of readers, while antagonist is the character which force or against the

protagonist struggles. Character becomes a prominent thing in this research since

it focuses on the female main characters named Mariam Jo and Laila. By

analyzing their characters, the deeper knowledge of both of main characters will

be achieved.

1.1.4 Characterization

Instead character, the other elements of literary work is characterization

which cannot separate each others. Both of them have the relations that complete

each other. From the different name, each character in a literary work is created

by an author with different behavior and personalities to make readers easy to

remember and understand the whole story.

Characterization is the presentation of the nature of people in a story.

Action and dialogue are the main points in characterization just as it is only by

means of their actions and words than one can observe the characters of other

people in real life (Peikoff 7). Like in the daily life of human being, there are

some stories that the plots are composed as real as the human being life. So that,

the same problems and condition as same as in the story. Readers can gets moral

value after read it.

The author uses two ways in characterizing the characters, they are direct

and indirect characterization. Using direct manner means that the author describes

directly about the character, author show the characterization directly with gives

description of a character after said the character’s name or their role in a story, also the author attributes the qualities characters in direct description. Otherwise,

in indirect manner of characterization the author does not merely tell the

characters but shows them to the readers through how the character looks, what

the character does, what the character says, what character thinks and how the

character affects other characters (Baldick 37). Some authors have different style

to show the characterization, there are some authors that show the characterization

as the description in the beginning of introduction of a character. Instead of, there

are some authors that make implication of the character through how they did and

spoken in the story. Sometimes, through the act or the dialogue in the story,

readers can find out what the characterization each character is. So, if the reader

want to make character analysis must be observe through dialogue in it.

So, instead of analyzing character, this research also analyze the

characterization of two women as main characters who get oppressed by men

figure and laws of Taliban that placed women in second range, it is through their

speaking, their doing and their thought to shows their struggle confront of the

1.2 Review of Related Study

There are a lot of studies that also concern about several significant issue

or themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Those studies concern about themes or

other aspects that Khaled Hossein creates in his novel. The first thesis entitles

Middle Eastern Women’s issues an analysis ofA Thousand Splendid Sunsand The

New York Times” has been written by student of University of Florida named

Lindsay B. Shapiro. Her thesis focuses on the change main characters’ life style

and deals with Eastern Women’s issues. In her analysis, she uses theory of

psychology.

The second thesisis written by Fajar Nur Indriyany the student of UIN

Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, entitle “Mariam’s search for Meaning Life in

Khaled HosseinA Thousand Splendid Suns” this research analyzed on the Mariam efforts find the meaning of her life. The study is identify the description Mariam

character who tries to find her truth meaning life.

The difference of this research and the previous ones is this research

analyzes about women an issue that is affected by patriarchal system and Taliban

laws in Afghanistan. Moreover, this research analyze main characters struggle to

confront the oppression and some kinds of discrimination. Because of the research

analyze of women figure, thus it intends to use Feminism theory in this analysis.

CHAPTER III

TALIBAN

1.1Historical Background

The name of Taliban is from Arabic word “tholibaan” it means “students”.

Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan. While,

Taliban laws are laws that arranged by Taliban regime

(www.wikipedia.org/Taliban). The Taliban formed in 1994 leaded by Mullah

Mohammed Omar. Omar named his regime the Taliban (the students) and the

country found him self governing with name the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

(www. asia.knoji.com). In 1994 the Taliban, under the leadership of Mullah

Mohammed Omar, begans its territorial conquest with the seizure of the Afghan

subsequent takeover of the city in Kandahar. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from

1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan’s long civil war. The Taliban emerged as resistance movement aiming to eject the Soviet troops from

Afghanistan.

The Taliban are one of the Mujahideen, the groups that formed during the

war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After withdrawal of Soviet

forces, the Mujahideen set up a new government. However, the various factions

were unable to cooperate and fell each other, instead of victimization of women

happened often. The appearance of Taliban begins to fighting of rival Mujahideen

authorization that arbitrarily. Taliban then went on to take the city of Kandahar,

and ended with their capture of Kabul in September 1996. When Taliban took

(www.infoplease.com/taliban). The Taliban immediately introduced Shari’a law as well as a few more rules and regultion of them own. The rules that have

discriminate about human right of men and women.

Under the Taliban regime, women are not allowed to hold jobs or receive

education. They can only appear in public if they are accompanied by male

relatives and clothed in burqa (full-length coverings that drape the entire body

including their face), women cannot laugh, talk out loud in public or make noise

when they walk. If they wear makeup or show their ankles they are subject to

being whipped (Hadibroto 88).

These are the Taliban laws:

a. Laws for men

- All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time and you are

caught doing something other, you will be beaten

- All men will grow beards. The correct length is at least one clenched

fist beneath the chin. If you do not abide by this, you will be beaten

- All boys will wear turbans. Boys in grade one through six will wear

black turbans, higher grades will wear white

- All boys will wear Islamic clothes. Shirt collars will be buttoned

- Singing is forbidden

- Dancing is forbidden

- Playing cards, playing chess, gambling, and kite flying are forbidden

- Writing books, watching films, and painting pictures are forbidden

- If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again,

your foot will be cut off

- If you are not Muslim, do not worship where you can be seen by

Muslims. If you do, you will be beaten and imprisoned. If you are

caught trying to convert a Muslim to your faith, you will be executed.

Instead the men, there are some laws that must be obeyed by women in

Afghanistan.

b. Laws for women

- You will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper

for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go

outside, you must be accompanied by a mahram (a male

relative). If you are caught alone on the street, you will be

beaten and sent home.

- 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

If women are oing outside with charming clothes to show

themslves, they will be cursed by the Islamic laws and should nver

epect to go to heaven.

- You will not make eye contact with men

- You will not laugh in public.. if you do, you will lose a finger

- Girls are forbidden to attending school. All schools for girls will close

immediately

- Women are forbidden to work

- If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death

(Hosseini 278).

Islam as a rescuing religion has determined specific dignity for women,

Islam has valuable instructionss for women. Women should not create such

opportunity to attract the attention of people.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

1.1 The Portrait of Main Characters as Victims

This chapter analyzes the depiction of women struggle as seen through

both of main characters in this novel, they are Mariam Jo as the illegitimate child

of rich man named Jalil and Nana (a former housekeeper in Jalil’s house) and

Laila as the second main character, a young girl and smart a daughter of Fariba

and Hakim. Moreover this analysis also digs up the reason why main characters

being victims throughout several oppression that they accept from their childhood

until they grow up become adult. By firstly examining on their characters, it will

gain profound knowledge about the character and characterization of both main

characters clearly. After having fundamental background of them, then studying

their characterization more intensely to reveal their way of struggle. Inside this

analysis process, it uses feminism theory to support the analysis in order to expose

the motive that leads main characters in getting oppression and as the victim of

gender discrimination, also the Taliban laws affective as the main impact.

1.1.1 Portrait of Mariam Jo’s Character

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the novel that depicting of two Afghan women as

main character, Mariam Jo and Laila. This part will explain about the first main

character, Mariam Jo. She is one of female characters who tells to the reader about

she does, speaks and thinks from her childhood instead Laila. For instance, other

becomes the main character because she appears and dominate on the whole story

(Nurgiyantoro 176).

Furthermore Mariam depicted as main character, she also becomes the

protagonist. Mariam becomes the central person that must command involvement

on the part of the reader and readers give empathy totally to her. She also becomes

a dynamic character, it is a person who changes over time, usually as a result of

resolving a central conflict or facing a major crisis (http://learn.lexicon.net). Most

dynamic characters tend to be central rather than peripheral characters, because

resolving the conflict is the major role of central characters. Therefore, Mariam

also belongs to protagonist character that readers can really feel her hard struggle

to getting happiness in her life.

Mariam is one of two a female characters. Mariam was born in 1959, she

grows up Kolba outside Herat, a small city in Afghanistan. Her appearance starts

in the beginning story as the little Mariam.

Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word

harami (Hosseini 5).

This story tells of first main character’s life from her childhood, exactly on age

five years old. Mariam has been a victim since birth, since she is an illegitimate

child, she also is out casted by everyone including her father Jalil. She grows up

by her mother, Nana. Nana is chased away by Jalil’s family when she is pregnant

of Mariam because Jalil refuses to acknowledge Mariam as his real daughter.

Nana also frequently refers to Mariam as a harami, when Mariam gets wrong and

does mistakes, it is uttered by her mother when Mariam still five years old. She

You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything

I’ve endured an heirloom, clumsy little harami

At the time, Mariam did not understand. She did not know what

this word harami—bastard meant Nor was she old enough to

appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born (5).

This means that Mariam does not know what the meaning of word harami

is. It is because she stills a kid little that does not understand the meaning of

harami. Mariam spends her childhood in ignorance, nobody pays attention to her.

Later when Mariam grows older, finally she knows what the meaning of harami

is. In the case that Mariam status as an illegitimate child leaves her without a true

family who would be isolated and would never have illegitimate claim to the

things other people had, such as family, love and acceptance by the other people.

Mariam would listen dutifully to this. She never dared say to Nana how much she dislike her talking this way about Jalil. The truth was that around Jalil. Mariam did not feel at all like a harami. For an hour or two every Thursday, when Jalil came to see her, all smiles and gifts and endearments. Mariam felt deserving of all the bounty that life had to give. And, for this, Mariam loves Jalil (6)

From the quotation it shows Mariam is always obey to her mother,

although sometimes she has not deals if her mother said about badness of her

father. Her father, Jalil heads for wipe out what he does to Mariam and Nana, to

assuage his conscience he builds a small shack to them. He also visits Mariam once in a week, Mariam like him. He always gives her some stories that make her

imagines how nice her father is. She never feels as a harami when she hears all of

stories from her father and feels that her mother does not love her as much as Jalil

Mariam about the pretentious love that Jalil Khan showers upon her, about how

she was accused by Jalil himself when others in his family get to know of their

illicit relationship.

Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass

needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger alwaysfinds a

woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam (7).

It means that the role of women and how they are often undermined and

abused by men in Afghani culture. That is Nana tries to tell Mariam, to be careful.

Nana gives Mariam some of her firsthand experience on her life, because she

afraid Mariam will confront as same as Nana’s bitter experience in the past. It is

also shows of radical feminism thought, while radical feminism is belief that male

supremacy is the root or model for all other oppressions (http://amptoons.com).

Once Mariam expresses her desire for attaining a formal education to

Mullah Faizullah (her Quran teacher) she wants to go to school like the other

Jalil's children.

One day, as they were walking. Mariam told him that she wished she would be allowed to go to school.

I mean a real school akhund sahib. Like in a classroom. Like my

father’s other kids (13).

It shows how she wants to do as same as the other children. it shows how

stubborn she is to get her right to be educated. Mariam does not simply accept that

she must be isolated and cannot do things like the other do. She hopes that she can

get the education like the other kid get. It is also a kind of rebellion action that

showed by Mariam who always isolated from her childhood and cannot do

anything like the other children who she knows in their daily. Mariam insists to

formal education would not only be impossible for her, but also that such an

education would be wasted on her. The larger point as a woman's responsibility is

her home and her family because Nana does not see the need for a woman to be

educated. It shows how Mariam’s life is isolated from her childhood because she

is illegitimate. Nana intervenes it and says that a child like Mariam needs only one

skill to live, and it is not taught in school.

Only one skill. And it’s this: tahamul. Endure. It’s our lot in life,

Mariam.

Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have. Do you understand? Besides,

they’ll laugh at you in school. They will. They’ll call you harami. They’ll saythe most terrible things about you. I won’t have it.

(18)

What the most important to know about Mariam is her own realization that

her life is hard and yet she endures all. This shows that the social system suggests

women to learn endurance since their childhood.

After that, when she decides to visits Jalil, she must accept the sad reality

that she is not treated like his real daughter. Jalil ignores her arrival in his house,

moreover lets her sleep on the road. She spends the night outside of the house.

All during the ride, as she bounced in the backseat, she cried. they were tears of grief, of anger, of disillusionment. But mainly tears of a deep, deep shame at how foolishly she had given herself over to Jalil, how she had fretted over what dress to wear, over the mismatching hijab, walking all the way here, refusing to leave, sleeping on the street like a stray dog (25)

It shows how Mariam ashamed about what she does, she prepare well

when she goes to Jalil’s house. She feels how stubborn she is, she ignores her

mother’s advice not to go there. She just demands to meet Jalil, but she must

quote that shows her feeling, “Mariam kept thinking of his face in the upstairs window. He lets her sleep on the street. On the street Mariam cried lying down.

She does not want to be seen. She imagines all of Herat know this morning how

she is disgrace herself. She wishes Mullah Faizullah were here so she could put

her head on his lap and let him comfort her (25).

Then, she must accept of her mother suicide when she arrives in her house.

After her mother’ssuicide Mariam lived with Jalil’s family. Life gives a hard

knock and her love for her father is strangled when Jalil Khan disowns her, gets

rid of her by marrying her off to Rasheed, a widowed of shoemaker. She cherishes

her marriage initially, Rasheed’s over-protective nature, he talks about pride and

honour.

He fished a sky blue burqa from the bag. The yards of pleated cloth

spilled over his knees when he lifted it. He rolled up the burqa, looked at Mariam...'It embarrasses me, frankly, to see a man who's lost control of his wife...But I'm a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only'" (70).

In this dialogue Rasheed introduces in use of burqa as a new rule for

Mariam. He said about some women in Kabul that are freer only because of the

mentality of their husband. He gives her the burqa before they leave the house

together. It shows how women are oppressed by men in Afghanistan. Men can

wear whatever they want, instead women must wear burqa.

Mariam’s shame at being illegitimate is one big reason that makes her unable to stand up for herself. She is plagued by guilt that controls her for much

exercise would always be heretic for a woman. Rasheed’s protection for Mariam does not last long; eventually their relationship becomes bitter as her presence was

meant only to bear a son for Rasheed. Mariam's inability to have children turns

her into a resentful, bitter, and fearful woman. She also at first resents the arrival

of Laila in their lives, but soon comes to exercise a strong bond with her. She

finally finds an opportunity to love and be loved by Laila and her children, Aziza

and Zalmai. She is a character who becomes a role model for the reader because

of her devotion to the people whom she comes to love. This helps her understand

her own mother better.

4.1.2 Portrait of Laila’s Character

Laila is the youngest and the only daughter of Hakim and Fariba. She is

also the second main female character. She is depicted as protagonist because she

appears in whole of story and helps first female character to resolve the main

conflict that happened around them that make reader get empathy of their

character. She is depicted as a flat character, flat character is the opposite of a

round character. This literary personality is notable for one kind personality trait

or characteristic. Because starts her appearance in the beginning in the story, she

depicts as a girl who has strong desire to change people around her to have

positive thought. She is depicted as a pretty and smart girl.

They were marveling at the baby’s light hair, at her pink cheeks

and puckered, rosebud lips, at the slits of jade green eyes moving behind her puffy lids (66).

From Laila’s appearances, she is physically described as a beautiful girl with green eyes, blonde curly hair and high cheekbones. She was born from

educate and liberal parents. She is dedicated as “Revolutionary Girl”. This name

happens to have deeper meaning regarding Laila’s personality. Laila represents the new modern face of Afghanistan.

I know you’re still young, but I want you to understand and

learn this now, he said. Marriage can wait, education cannot

you’re a very, very bright girl. Truly, you are. You can be anything you want, Laila I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women uneducated (72).

Laila father (Hakim) is person who well educated teacher that holds

progressive views about politics and women’s rights. He thinks education is

always to be a priority in encouragement. From the quotation, Laila’s father, he

has progressive attitudes about women and believes strongly to Laila. Her father

educated Laila that Afghan women have an equally important role to play in their

country. Rather than attempt to marry her off young age, Hakim hopes his

daughter will pursue an education and contribute to the rebuilding of Afghanistan

after the war. Growing up with mother careless seems to have forced Laila to

become more independent girl.

Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before, Babi said, always lowering his voice, aware of how intolerant Mammy was of even remotely positive talk of the communists. But it's true, Babi said, it's a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan. And you can take advantage of that, Laila (135).

The quote when her father talks to Laila about being a woman in

Afghanistan is significance, also that there is high hope or more people should

have more hopes for women and their rights of equality throughout Laila’s

character. From her father, Laila imbibes the modern thoughts and believes in

building the society through education.

The absence of both of Laila's older brothers, who have gone to war makes her

life uncared for, but also fills it with a sense of purpose. She has a strong desire to

use her intelligence and education to improve the world around her.

The war gets so bad that her father decides to homeschooled Laila and that

makes her lose some of her freedom. At age fifteen years old, Laila fall in love

with her best friend since childhood, named Tariq, but war forces Tariq and his

parents to flee to Pakistan and after that, the unfortunate come to Laila’s life.

During the wars of the 1980s and 1990s, a rocket destroyed Laila's home with her

parents in it and kills Laila’s parents also wounds her. Rasheed help her and asks Mariam to nurse her back to helath. This tragedy and unexpected pregnancy

forces Laila to become Rasheed's second wife. He said to Laila that Tariq was

dead caused war.

I'm so sorry," Rasheed said to the girl, taking his bowl of mastawa and meatballs from Mariam without looking at her. 'I know you were very close...friends...the two of you'" (211).

Rasheed said this in a sarcastic tone, telling Laila how sorry he is that

Tariq is dead. He sounds very happy, because he sees the chance to marry Laila,

as she has no other chance. He also said that many young men die this way. But

from Tariq, before they married. Instead of, the endlessly motivated by the desire

to replace his dead son, Rasheed entraps Laila into marriage.

That becomes a big problem later is when Laila born a daughter not a son

that like Rasheed wants. Because of it, Rasheed is extremely aggressive. Rasheed

savagely beats Laila, as Afghan women in general are stifled and forced to suffer

the consequences of being born the inferior gender.

3.1.3 How They are Victimized

Mariam and Laila are forced into life situations which challenge their

strength and ability to endure. In the beginning of the novel, Nana was perhaps apt

trying to teach Mariam the most important skill that every woman should have is

endurance. In this part will analysis about kinds of depiction the main female

characters as the victim in the novel.

a) Portrait of Mariam Jo as Victim

Firstly the depiction of Mariam Jo as victim, there are some depictions

systematic that Mariam as victim from her childhood.

-Refusal Kid

Mariam, the illegitimate child results from Jalil’s sexual liaison with his

housekeeper, Nana. She is chased away by Jalil’s family when Nana in

pregnant Mariam. Jalil refuses to accept Mariam as her real daughter because

the relation between Nana and Jalil is forbidden relation also Nana just a

up Mariam by herself in outside Herat, Afghanistan. As a young girl Mariam

was treated like harami leading her to grow up to be very hard on the outside

and able to take a lot of injustice. The depiction of Mariam as an illegitimate

daughter that isolated and cannot accept kinds of family and acceptance of her

government are the forms how she is victimized. Also that she must live with

her temperament mother thatfrequently refers to her as a harami. Mariam’s

rough childhood prepared her for the life she would be living in the future.

Become uneducated girl and isolated because her status that never gets

acceptance from the society.

-Education

The women in A Thousand Splendid Suns have very different educational

experiences, between Mariam and Laila. Both of the female characters have

difference in get education. Mariam is tutored by Mullah Faizullah, he is

Mariam’s Qur’an tutor. Mariam learns how to read and write. Yet, when she

asks her mother to going to school, her mother insist Mariam’s wish and say to

Mariam only lesson that Mariam needs to learn is “endure.”

-Fixed Marriage

After her mother suicide, she is also victim of fixed marriage is arranged

by her father’s wife. Jalil Khan, her father marrying her off to a forty year old widower without giving her a chance to have an option. When we refer to the

Holy Scripture in Islam, according to Surah Nisa 4:19, marriage is considered a

sacred agreement and it is mandatory that both the man and woman agree to

She forced to married with widowed named Rasheed, it is surely has

contradiction with Qur’an that marriage must be the agreement of both of

woman and man to be bridegroom. Mariam starts become Rasheed puppet that

must be obey what he said like when he asks Mariam wear burqa (kinds of

cloth to covered all of the woman body in Afghanistan). Burqa is not

comfortable for the woman, this dressed is really hot and also is really hard to

see what is in front when they are using it.

Eventually burqa is a sign of oppression and male domination. Mariam is

getting abusive from her husband because of the several miscarriages that

happened to her. He changes become a cruel, abusive man and because her

several miscarriage, he thinks that Mariam cannot caring their child when she

pregnant. The suffering of Mariam can be accounted to the belief system that

Rasheed, a Pashtun practices in the face of his ethnic group ideology. It is

always seen that the man has taken all the decisions of her life.

Depicted in one of hadiths said that the primary duty of a wife is thus to

obey her husband in all that is lawful. However, if he invites to what is

unlawful and displeasing to Allah, she should not obey him. The Prophet said,

“There is no submission in matters involving disobeying or displeasing Allah.

Submission to the husband is obligatory only in what is good and reasonable. A

woman should not obey her husband if he orders her to do something sinful

(Fatima, 198). It means command to obey husband in everything except in

what is unlawful and displeasing to Allah. Therefore, if a husband invites his

of Mariam is continued by Jalil’s cruel. One day he forced Mariam to chew

pebbles in his impatience and disgust over her inability to reproduce.

Put it in you mouth…

His powerful hands clasped her jaw. He shoved two fingers into her

mouth and pried it open, then forced the cold hard pebbles into it…

Through the mouthful of grit and pebbles Mariam mumbled a plea. Tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes (94).

From the quotation, the first female character, Mariam Jo who is by the

time getting oppression and victimized in her life, it started from her childhood

until she becomes adult.

b)Portrait of Laila as Victim

While the second female character, but she more luck because she grew up

by educated parents. In contrast, Laila has a father that emphasizes the importance

of her education. Her father, Hakim is a teacher who diligently works with Laila

on her homework and provides her with extra work in order to expand her

education. He emphasizes that Laila’s education is important as that of any boy.

After the streets of Kabul become too dangerous during the war, he insists on

tutoring Laila himself.

He comments about the importance of women attending universities.

When we consider Laila, she is born in a privileged world and is quiet lucky to

have a father whose views are modern and contribute in the making of a woman

who pursues against all odds and claims her stance in the society. Unlike Mariam,

she strongly believes that she deserves a life where she is valued and loved. These

-Ignorance Maternal (Cultural Belief)

Laila is also as the victim how she has careless mother. Contemplating,

Laila’s childhood, it can be said that she experiences that obscure love from

her mother, as most of the times she is thoughtful about her sons’ coming

back proclaiming peace in Afghanistan. As a result, Laila misses out on all

the life experiences that she as a youngster and daughter should have got.

Her mother spends much of Laila’s childhood grieving for her lost sons,

Laila endures her mother’s setbacks with love and as much understanding as

she can give. Laila shoulders more of the household chores. She would also

persuade her mother to out of bed for baths and meals. Laila would struggle

or rather get choked listening to these words again and again. Laila lay there

and listened, wishing her mother would notice that Laila had not become a

shaheed. In fact that she was alive that she had hopes and a future.

That’s the kind of brave young men your brothers were, Laila, that Commander Massoud himself, the Lion of

Panjshir, God bless him, would over-see their burial. (140)

Her mother represents all those at the domestic front to disrupt the social

living of the women Laila being the actual victim.

-Fixed Marriage

At that time when war started, Tariq’s turn to flee to keep his parents

in a safe place and leaving his love (Laila) here amidst the chaos. After that,

when war getting worse a rocket kills Laila's parents and wounds her. Laila’s

life getting worse and simplicity started when their parents killed and forced

started getting abusive from Rasheed when she uttered a daughter not a son

like Rasheed wants.

Rasheed and Mariam nurse her back to health. Laila is devastated and

her idealism and independence are challenged when she decides to marry

Rasheed in order to give her unborn child by Tariq a father. Soon, she also

becomes a victim to Rasheed’s violent ways and is willing to accept the limitations she once would have openly mocked. She extends her love to

Mariam and takes comfort in having a friend and a mother figure.

However, she is astute enough to make attempts to free herself and

Mariam from the clutches of Rasheed. She also begins to understand the

sacrifices that are necessary to be a good mother by following Mariam's

example.

But somehow, over these last months, Laila and Aziza--a harami like herself, as it turned out--had become extensions of her, and now, without them, the life Mariam had tolerated for so long suddenly seemed intolerable (256).

Rasheed said this to Mariam and Laila when the morning of

September 27 the Taliban goes to Kabul shooting and whistling and

they pass in front of Rasheed’s house and then they start to talk about

the Taliban. The meaning of this quote is that Rasheed shows that he is

agree with the Taliban because they are not corrupted by soviets and he

thinks that they are going to bring peace to Afghanistan. The

significance is that Rasheed is agree with the Taliban because he is a

traditional men of Afghanistan, he believes in all the thinks that the

right and this caused inequality between man and woman. After

Taliban have control of Kabul, they directly announced some of rule

that must be obeyed by society and as laws that used in Afghanistan.

These are the Taliban laws:

All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time and you are caught doing something other, you will be beaten.

All men will grow beards. The correct length is at least one clenched fist beneath the chin. If you do not abide by this, you will be beaten.

All boys will wear turbans. Boys in grade one through six will wear black turbans, higher grades will wear white.

All boys will wear Islamic clothes. Shirt collars will be buttoned. Singing is forbidden.

Dancing is forbidden.

Playing cards, playing chess, gambling, and kite flying are forbidden.

Writing books, watching films, and painting pictures are forbidden.

If you keep parakeets, you will be beaten. Your birds will be killed.

If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again, your foot will be cut off.

If you are not Muslim, do not worship where you can be seen by

Muslims. If you do, you will be beaten and imprisoned. If you are caught trying to convert a Muslim to your faith, you will be executed.

Attention women:

You will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. If you are caught alone on the street, you will be beaten and sent home.

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 lose a finger. Girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will close immediately.

Women are forbidden from working.

If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death.

Listen. Listen well. Obey. Allah-u-akbar (278).

When we compare the policies of men as against the women, it is seen that

the men do not have major restrictions. Adherence to the dress code and

forbidding all acts of pleasures is all that they have to abide by. For women the

policies seem to be highly stringent and acting as a deterrent for the nation’s

growth. Abandoning them from education and employment would rather take

civilization back to pre-Islamic days. It is agreed that women’s responsibilities

include gaining profound knowledge in one’s religion and also abiding by its demands praying, fasting, performing good deeds etc. It is also that a woman

can be dutiful to her family and society only if she has gained knowledge about

her religion. Further it is essential for her to gain some worldly knowledge in

sciences so that she can fulfill her duties as a wife, mother, sister, daughter and

a responsible human being representing the other half of the society and

actively contributing to the prosperity of the nation.

Under the Taliban, women and girls were discriminated against in many

ways, for the crime of being born a girl. The Taliban enforced their version of

Islamic Sharia law. Under their rule, violence against women and rape were

endemic. They are flagged just because they were born females. Moreover,

women in the novel were raised aware of their duty as wives and mothers. This

is what they are born for, to conceive. They are a mere object of production

1.2 Women Struggle Against Women Discrimination in Khaled Hosseini’s A

Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to the

early 2000s. Women in Afghanistan have been going through gender equity in its

severe form since ages. Khaled Hosseini’s depicts of Afghan women whose live during several invasions in the Afghanistan. In this novel tells about two female as

main character that getting oppression and become victimized cause of patraichal

society and Taliban laws that used in Afghanistan. The issues of feminism and

gender equity have been raised through the character of Mariam and Laila. The

novel stresses over the rights women were not given along with restrictions to

education, choices, and liberation.

1.2.1 Mariam’s Struggle and How She is Getting Happiness

Harami or an illegitimate child, this word has a lasting impact on Mariam,

defining her status in Afghanistan and establishing a lifelong struggle with

self-worth. Raised by sacrificing but bitter mother neglecting father, Mariam is taught

from a young age that she would never have a legitimate claim to the things other

people had. Her mother attempts to steel her to hardship in preparation for a future

of injustice and abuse by men, assuming Mariam’s future will same as her own

past.

Like a compass needle that always points north, a man’s

accusing finger

always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam (7).

These are words of advice given to Mariam by her mother, Nana. Nana is

a bitter woman who prepares her daughter to expect nothing but abuse from men,

rejected by her fiance, impregnated by Jalil, and abandoned by her father however

women must endure from much injustice in patriarchal system. It is can be

pointed that, in Afghanistan have different ways that a few years ago, if a man

makes a mistake he can easily put of the blame on the woman. That is what Nana

was trying to tell Mariam, to be careful. There is nothing women can do to escape

this, if a man does something wrong, it is automatically the women’s fault, and

there is nothing that she can do about it. As events derail her optimism, Mariam

soon begins to believe her mother was right when she said her only potential is to

endure. Burdened grief and guilt after her mother’s suicide, Mariam is betrayed by

her father, who marries her off to a widowed and older man in order to conceal his

own shame.

Mariam’s story of resilience as she seeks to endure her difficult life and the abuse from her controlling husband, in the process, she struggles with concept

such as justice, worth and the role of women. Before she can overcome obstacles,

she must confront her lifelong fear and guilt. Fifteen years later when she is

succumbing to despair and resentment, she finds hope and a second chance in an

unlikely person, her husband’s second wife Laila. Mariam on the other hand, has an inner strength that’s as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone. The

combination of the two is something fierce. Mariam has not been confident in

final straw may have come when Jalil rejected her. After that, she seemed to cut

herself off from the people around her as a defense mechanism.

But Laila plants something inside her. Laila’s inspiration helps Mariam

take control of her own destiny. Rasheed has been an awful, abusive husband to

her, but up until this point, she is never defended herself. but when she sees Laila

being strangled to death, she finally understand the need to fight back Rasheed. It

is evident that Mariam finds the courage she needed when she saves Laila when

Rasheed choking her by swinging a shovel to Rasheed’s head, she killed Rasheed and leaving him dead. To pay what she did, Mariam executed by Taliban.

Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an

unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed, and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother, a person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate belongings" (329).

This quote was thought by Mariam giving the message of living with

Rasheed for so long that now she finally has friends and people she love and who

also love her back. The meaning would be how Mariam says how she could not

live without Laila and Aziza because they are now a part of Mariam’s life now

and that she wouldn’t be able to handle it if they were not around her anymore. Mariam makes a connection with Aziza because they are both harami and in a

way Mariam is like a mother to Aziza and takes care of her like if she was her

both harami but they both share sadness of losing their most loved ones. Through

her love for Laila and Laila's children, Mariam is able to fulfill her wish to be a

mother and to finally give and receive love.

From this accident Mariam bravery was appears and it is because of she

wants to protect the ones who she loves, Laila that she consider as her daughter.

Also Mariam is able to become what she thought a harami like her could never be

a mother, a friend and a hero. Mariam, for her part, is simply grateful for

opportunity to know Laila and her children for as long as she could. Through her

love for Laila and Laila's child, Mariam is able to fulfill her wish to be a mother

and to finally give and receive love. Mariam reevaluates her life and reassesses

herself worth. She must finally prove or dispel her mother’s fateful words. Her

personal development and renewed faith lead to a pivotal moment that will force

her to choose between the safety of enduring and the risk of determing her own

fate. She felt not a problem that beginning she was an illegitimate but in the end

she is a legitimate in her life.

This was a legitimate end to alive of illegitimate beginnings (370).

1.2.2 Laila’s Struggle and How She is Getting Happiness

Laila is raised with a strong sense of self by her father is not willing

to submit to her circumstance to be uneducated women. Her father wishes

that Laila will be able to change of Afghanistan. It is Afghanistan, she born

as smart girl who grows up by educated family. Laila is someone who has

lost her love and raising his daughter. She had not anything to do other than

marrying Rasheed. Both of Mariam and Laila had to marry him eventhough

they did not want to. The discrepancy appear in the two Mariam and Laila

marriage to Rasheed. Rasheed becomes abuse too Laila, when she was

uttered a daughter named Aziza. Birth of Aziza make Mariam and Laila be

friendship, different with Mariam who endured the pain and hardship, Laila

escape route when she knew her life is going to be hell when she decided to

marry Rasheed. Laila brings her headstrong nature to the table, giving

Mariam the confidence that she so desperately needs. Mariam might not

know what it is that’s growing inside her, Laila who has the power to spread

her positive nature to everyone around her. The two women start off at odds

with each other but come to realize the only way they will be able to remain

sane in their unstable lives is if they can come together, creating a deep

friendship tied to their shared pain.

This is significant because Mariam has deep meaning for Laila and would

do anything for her as she saved her life and the judge is thinking women cannot

have the same rights as men and that she doesn’t deserve to be not guilty. Mariam emerges as the true hero of the novel, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for

her loved ones and her beliefs. Although the Taliban execute her, Mariam leaves

the world on her own terms, proud of the person she has become.

Mariam is never very far. She is here, in these walls, they've repainted, in the trees they've planted, in the blankets that keep the children warm, in these pillows and books and pencils. She is in the children's laughter. She is in the verses Aziza recites and in the prayers she mutters when she bows westward. But, mostly, Miriam

is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand splendid suns (366).

Conditions in Kabul improve because of the U.S invasion and Laila insists

that her family move back home so they can help rebuild their city. Laila visits

Mariam's old home and is able to relate to Mariam’s talk about her Kolba, she comes to terms with her grief over Mariam's execution. This quote comes at the

very end of the novel and reveals how much Mariam has affected Laila's life and

how even though she is gone, Laila will never forget her. She and Tariq where

talking about what to name their child and Laila already has a name for the child

if it’s a girl will give her name Mariam. She means that she wants to continue Mariams memory on and on for a long time so she is never forgotten. This is

significant because Laila got so close to Mariam that she cannot let her go and has

to remember her. Laila fulfills her father’s hope for her at the end of the novel,

when she leads a project to rebuild an orphanage in Kabul. She chooses to

dedicate her life to help the forgotten children of Afghanistan, the young girls and

boys who never received the same encouragement and love that she did when she

was their age. Laila has become a teacher, like her father and she will spread her

determination and intelligence to the people who need it the most. Laila and Tariq

build a new life in Kabul. Laila becomes a school teacher, a respectable woman in

Afghanistan as her father dreams, during her childhood days. She works in the

orphanage where Aziza once lived. And when Laila becomes pregnant, she

Both Laila and Mariam exhibit characters that are unique in their own

way, Laila strong with her spirit ready to confront the male domination whereas

Mariam weak submissive yielding to life’s situations. Both women must face Rasheed, an older brutal man, as he reigns over their lives. The two women start

of at odds with each other but come to realize the only way they will be able to

remain sane in their unstable lives is if they can come together, creating a deep

friendship tied to their shared pain.

Mariam and Laila represent the heroes within the analysis of the novel as

well, they are not continuously perceived as acting heroically. At some point

during the analysis of the novel, passivity of Mariam and Laila is so pervasive that

their being heroin is vanished. In contrast, the users never hesitated to label

Mariam and Laila as heroes. From their viewpoint, the heroic action of Mariam

and Laila is reflected in both their acceptance of and their resistance to the

adversity. They are perceived as heroes either for their self-sacrifice, which is

manifest in their resistance to domination or for their survival, which is evident in

their acceptance of domination.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to

the early 2000s. Khaled Hosseini depicts of Afghan women whose live during

several invasions in the Afghanistan. The issues of feminism and gender equity

have been raised through the character of Mariam Jo and Laila. Mariam Jo is first

woman of main character in this novel that appears in the beginning of the story

and appearance of second main characters named Laila in the middle of story. The

novel stresses over the rights women were not given along with restrictions to

education, choices, and liberation. In A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

portrays how strict Islamic family laws are imposed on women by forcing them to

adhere to fundamental values of virginity, marriage and divorce. He spins out the

fate and sharp individual differences of his female characters to demonstrate the

breath of commonalty among Muslim women in Afghan society during the drastic

political upheavals of the 1970’s till 2003.

The portrait of main female characters as victim, it starts from the first

main character named Mariam. She has born as an illegitimate child. She survives

in against oppression of her environment around her, such as ignorance child and

get low education. As fact that she is illegitimate child make her mother worried

about her status will abused by the other children, so she just life isolated and get

education from her Qur’an teacher Mullah Faizullah, after that the suicide of her

widow named Rasheed that is arranged by her father wives. She survives in her

fixed marriage and hope get better condition in her life.

However, it becomes worse when she has repeat miscarriage, It makes

Rasheed becomes verbally and physically abusive. While the second female

character named Laila,

While, the second female character named Laila, Laila represents the new

modern face of Afghanistan. Her father, Hakim, is well educated teacher who

holds progressive views about politics and women’s rights. Growing up with mother seems careless to her forced Laila to become more independent. Education

has always been a priority in encouragement from her parents to achieve her

dreams. The simplicity in her life happened when war killed her parents. Rasheed

help her and asks Mariam to nurse her back to health. After that Rasheed forced

Laila to marry with him. Because of Laila cannot give Rasheed a son as like as he

wants, she getting abuse like Mariam. Through the deeper analysis, this research

reveals how the Mariam and Laila as victim. It also revealed that both of main

characters are the victim but differently how they are victimized by the time.

Mariam Jo who becomes a victim as an illegitimate daughter, then she forced to

married of Rasheed and get abusive from her husband. While Laila becomes

victimize started war tragedy that killed her parents and continued with entraps

marriage to be Rasheed second wife also getting abusive from her Rasheed too.

The struggle depicted by main characters in this story is performed in her

survival against men’s oppression, patriarchal society and Taliban laws in

order relies on the curtailment of female rights. As Rasheed proclaims his

masculinity to control over his wives. The similar of Mariam and Laila destiny

that they always get abusive from Rasheed makes them have closer relationship.

They want to released from Rasheed abusive they tried to escape to Pakistan,

hopes to get freedom and happiness in the other country, but their effort to escape

from Rasheed failed. They returned to home by police. The accident happened

when Rasheed beats Laila and tries to suffocate her. He comes to succeeding,

when Mariam sees Laila being strangled to death, she finally understands the need

to fight back. Mariam hits him twice with a shovel and it caused he killed. Laila

and the children leave the following day, while Mariam stays to take the

punishment for the murder. She is arrested by the Taliban and stoned to death, but

Mariam feel happy and proud of herself. Mariam, for her part, is simply grateful

for opportunity to know Laila and her children for as long as she could. It is only

because of her heroic actions so that Laila and her family is able to survive and

work for positive change in Afghanistan. She was leaving the world as a woman

who had loved and been loved back, and Laila becomes a school teacher at the

orphanage where Aziza once lived. And when Laila becomes pregnant, she

decides that if she has a girl, she'll name her Mariam. The personal sacrifice

shows just how much Mariam has changed since beginning of the story. Instead of

being the victim, Mariam becomes a hero by protecting the ones she loves.

From the result of analysis of this novel as it has been explained above, we

can see that Mariam Jo and Laila characters really depict the hard struggle done

to achieve her rights. female character’s that does not easily come to an end and their character who never gives up with the difficulties coming into their life can

inspire other women with such spirit of woman to do the same thing. Therefore, it

is not too much to call Mariam Jo and Laila as the heroine character since she

represents some good moral values inside herself.

The female character of Mariam Jo and Laila also indicates feminism in

which decides themselves what they want to do for her own life. They choose

themselves their way to get happiness in life. Additionally, she seeks the equality

between men and women that women can get education and do what they want.

Besides, they can survive in hard situation within capitalism and eventually

WORK CITED

Baldick, chris. the oxford Concise dictionary of Literary terms. New York:

Oxford University Press inc., 2001

Claire, Colebrook. New Literary Histories “historicism and contemporary

criticism.” New York: Manchester university press. 1997.

Diyanni, Robert, ed. Literature : Approach to fiction, poetry, and drama.

McGraw-hill Companies, Inc. New York. 2004.

Gillespie, Tim. Doing Literary Criticism, Stenhouse Publisher, 2010.

Goodman, Lizbeth. Approaching Literature “Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the

Cannon.” Routledge. 2013.

Goldberg, Steven. The inevitability of patriarchy. London: Temple Smith.1977.

Gorham, Deborah. The Victorian Girl and Feminine ideal, London and Canberra:

Crom helm, 1982.

Gorsky, R, Susan. “Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the

Nineteenth Century”, New York: twayne publisher, 1992.

Holman, C. Hugh. A handbook to Literature. Indianapolis:ITT Bobbs-Merill Educational Publishing Company, Inc., 1985

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns, New York: A member of Penguin

Group (USA) inc, 2007. http://wsws.org

http://www.definitions.net/definition/victim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression http://study.com/patriarchal-system

http:// www.famousauthors.org/khaled-hosseini/ www. Asia.knoji.com

Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. Teori Pengkajian Fiksi, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada

Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban. . United States of America: McFarland & Company, inc. 2002.

Tyson, Lois. Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. New York &London:

Garland Publishing, inc. 1999.

Wilfred, L, Guerin. A handbook of critical approaches to literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

www. asia.knoji.com www.wikipedia.org/Taliban www.infoplease.com/taliban

www.wikipedia.org/A Thousand Splendid Suns

Your Guide to Bibliographic Citation: MLA Citation Style (7th ed.), Durham College & UOIT, 2011.

were to leave, the Taliban would search for both of them to find the murderer, but Mariam cannot let the children live in such danger. She also could not look at Zalmai every day knowing she had killed his father. Laila and Zalmai pick up Aziza and leave town. They never see Mariam again.

Mariam eventually is caught and put into a prison run by the Taliban. She tries to explain that she was defending herself when she killed Rasheed but the judges sentences Mariam to death. She is publicly executed.

Laila and Tariq marry and start a new life in Pakistan. They work for the same hotel at which Tariq worked before and they live in a shack behind the hotel. Laila reveals to Aziza that Tariq is her father and they bond instantly. Zalmai is at first adverse to Tariq, but he warms up.

After the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and the onset of President George Bush’s “War onTerror”, which has toppled the Taliban, Laila hears that conditions in Kabul are improving. She woshes to return and contribute. Tariq agrees.

Laila stops in Heart first and visits Mullah Faizullah’s son and the kolba.

Mullah Faizullah’s son gives Laila box that Jalil left for Mariam. The box contains a letter apologizing and providing an update for Mariam. The box also contains cash in American dollars and a copy of Pinnochio on video.

Laila, Tariq, Aziza and Zalmai move into a townhouse in Kabul. Laila teches at the orphanage and Tariq works for an NGO (non-governmental

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Wahyuni 55

Mariam close to her heart. As the novel ends, Laila is pregnant with her third child-if it is a girl, she will be named Mariam.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Khaled Hosseini is the best bestselling Afghan born America author of the Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 4, 1965. His father was an Afghan diplomat who worked at the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother, a high school teacher taught Farsi and History in a large Kabul school. The family moved to Paris in 1967 when the foreign

Ministry gave relocation orders to Hosseini’s father. Instead of returning to Kabul in 1980, the family sought political asylum in the United States due to the terrible conditions in Afghanistan after the invasion of the Soviet army. They were

granted the asylum and they moved to San Jose, California in September, 1980. In 1984, Hosseini graduated from Independence High School moving on to studying Biology at Santa Clara University. He graduated which Bachelors in Biology in 1988 after which he attended the university of California-San Diego’s School of Medicine where he he completed his M.D. in 1993. Having undergone residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles, Hosseini became a physician and practiced medicine during the years of 1996 and 2004. He conceived the idea of and began writing the Kite Runner while making a living as a medical practitioner in 2001.

The Kite Runner was published in 2003, immediately becoming an international bestseller. The novel was published in 70 countries, however, never in Afghanistan. While some parts of the novel are based on Hosseini’s childhood,

digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

Wahyuni 57

also produced as an audio book recorded in Hosseini’s voice. In 2007, The Kite Runner was adapted to screen bearing the same title as the novel. Hosseini made a brief appearance in a scene towards the end of the movie.

While The Kite Runner focuses mainly on relationships between men,

Hosseini’s second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns revolves around the

relationship between two women. It was released in 2007. With positive reviews from leading sources, the novel has so far been published in 60 countries and set to be made into a movie by producer Scott Rudin and Columbia Pictures who have acquired its rights.

Having set both his novels in Afghanistan, Hosseini’s devotion to his

homeland extends beyond his writings. His activism for a better Afghanistan is proof of his love for the country. Since 2006, Hosseini has served as a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR. His official website also contains information and links to many aid organizations helping Afghanistan in addition to the Khaled Hosseini Foundation which provides humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The foundation came into being after a trip Hosseini made Afghanistan in 2007. Having gone there for the first time in twenty seven years, Hosseini was immensely disturbed to discover the situation of the country he was born in.

Described as a smart minded handsome man by interviewers, Khaled Hosseini was declared the famous Afghan in the world by Time Magazine. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Roya and their two children.

Baldick, chris. the oxford Concise dictionary of Literary terms. New York: Oxford University Press inc., 2001

Claire, Colebrook. New Literary Histories “historicism and contemporary criticism.” New York: Manchester university press. 1997.

Diyanni, Robert, ed. Literature : Approach to fiction, poetry, and drama. McGraw-hill Companies, Inc. New York. 2004.

Gillespie, Tim. Doing Literary Criticism, Stenhouse Publisher, 2010.

Goodman, Lizbeth. Approaching Literature “Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the Cannon.” Routledge. 2013.

Goldberg, Steven. The inevitability of patriarchy. London: Temple Smith.1977.

Gorham, Deborah. The Victorian Girl and Feminine ideal, London and Canberra: Crom helm, 1982.

Gorsky, R, Susan. “Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century”, New York: twayne publisher, 1992.

Holman, C. Hugh. A handbook to Literature. Indianapolis:ITT Bobbs-Merill Educational Publishing Company, Inc., 1985

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns, New York: A member of Penguin Group (USA) inc, 2007.

http://wsws.org

http://www.definitions.net/definition/victim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression http://study.com/patriarchal-system

http:// www.famousauthors.org/khaled-hosseini/ www. Asia.knoji.com

Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. Teori Pengkajian Fiksi, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 2007.

xi

Tyson, Lois. Critical theory today: A user-friendly guide. New York &London: Garland Publishing, inc. 1999.

Wilfred, L, Guerin. A handbook of critical approaches to literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

www. asia.knoji.com www.wikipedia.org/Taliban www.infoplease.com/taliban

www.wikipedia.org/A Thousand Splendid Suns

Your Guide to Bibliographic Citation: MLA Citation Style (7th ed.), Durham College & UOIT, 2011.