Current Events: Unrest in the Middle East

In 2002, the Taliban attacked the World Trade Center in America. Before, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, they didn’t get involved. Now that they were directly attacking America, President George W. Bush felt like he had to get involved. “Back home, bombs are falling once again, this time American bombs” (Hosseini 385). Of course, Osama bin Laden, the leader of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers, was kept in the country because he was a mehman, a guest. “Tariq chuckles bitterly, and Laila hears in his chuckle that he is revolted by this distortion of an honourable Pashtun custom, this misrepresentation of his people’s ways” (Hosseini 384).

                Now, the war in the Middle East has settled down. However, a new civil war is rising up in Iraq. To supplement my observation, I found an article about that mentions the violence that the Middle East, specifically Iraq, is encountering some violence in the cities.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Apr-05/252389-iraq-christians-say-homes-seized-as-unrest-spikes.ashx#axzz2yJbl7DLR

                For this entry, I decided to look in the news section of Google to find any current events that may be related to my book. I managed to find a very recent article about unrest in Iran. “As Iraq suffers its worst violence in years, gangs claiming ties to powerful miltias have been commandeering empty homes in Baghdad” (TheDailyStar.com). Unrest has seemed to escalate during the past year since the Americans have officially left the country. When President Barack Obama came into power, he managed to use his powers as Commander-in-Chief to defeat Osama bin Laden. After that, the Americans had no reason to be on their soil anymore. Now, since the American soldiers pulled out of Afghanistan, unrest seems to be spiking. It seems that the American presence in Afghanistan kept civilians peaceful and now gangs are rising up because no one can stop them. 

Caritas (Love)

There aren’t many times love is shown through the book. When it is, it is depicted in a poetic way. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a rather dark book but the darkness can sometimes be dampened by shows of affection.

                Laila and Tariq have a close relationship that started as a childhood friendship and ended up in marriage. They were so close that even the neighbour picked up on the relationship. “she and Tariq were walking up the street together when they’d passed Rasheed…‘If it isn’t Laili and Majnoon,’ referring to the star-crossed lovers of Nezami’s popular twelfth-century romantic poem – a Farsi version of Romeo and Juliet” (Hosseini 163). Laila and Tariq soon did have a relationship. “He slid closer to her…pressed his lips to hers” (Hosseini 176). But it didn’t last for long. Soon Tariq and his family had to move away since their current living conditions were turning deadly. That’s when Laila and Tariq did the unimaginable. “There was a frenzy after. Shirts hurriedly buttoned, belts buckled, hair finger-combed” (Hosseini 183).

                Love doesn’t always have to show in an intimate relationship like Laila and Tariq’s. It can be through a family relationship too. After a rocket blew up Laila’s house, killing her parents, she had to move in with and marry Rasheed. There, she discovered some shocking news. “Not with this daily retching. This new fullness in her breasts. And this awareness, somehow, amid all of this turmoil, that she had missed a cycle” (Hosseni 219). She was pregnant with Tariq’s baby, Aziza. After Aziza was born, Laila couldn’t keep away from her. She was with the baby most of the time in the days. I see this love as a replacement for the love she can’t give to Tariq.

Journal Entry: Strife

Today, I sent my son to school. I keep regretting that decision as I write this. I’m so stupid, thinking that my son is invincible to the rockets that the Mujahedeen and the Soviet Union are launching. He is…was a bright boy; one of the few that strive for top grades in his class. He needs some pushing now and then to get his homework done but he does get it done. As an artist, I can never understand his logic. How he does draws cube in 3^rd dimension so easily. I am more of an impressionist so I will stick to painting. He gets along with his mother well. Their brains are wired alike since his mother is a Math major.

                He likes…liked rosewater ice cream. We would buy 2 tubs of it: one for him and the rest of the family. He would eat it really fast and do his homework, saying that the brain freeze helped him focus and the sweet taste simulated pleasant emotions. I remember sitting across from him and sketching him while he did homework. He was so still while he solved math equations that I could sketch him with ease. I even tried it with different mediums: charcoal, acrylic, watercolor.

                When it happened, I was upstairs looking down at him from the front window. The sun’s rays danced in his short, spiky hair. His focused grey eyes automatically rolled when they saw me, since he knew that I would pester him about homework as soon as he got in. He had his backpack slung over one shoulder because it looked cooler; his own words. Then the whistling. It’s not like the cartoon whistling where it starts out high-pitched and goes low. No. It’s more like a person is trying to blow into a flute when their lips aren’t fully touching the opening. Then I saw the glint and half a second later, the house rocked. I was thrown against the wall and I felt a crack in my chest. As my life faded from my body, I saw the distressed look on my son’s face. He isn’t invincible to the strife that a rocket can cause, even if he is not the victim. Today, I looked down upon him as he cries.

Social Justice: Woman Injustice

Any person that knows some information of the Afghani society should know that women injustice is very prevalent. The first teachings that most women get is that they belong at home, taking care of the children and the house, while men go out and work to keep the household afloat.

                When Nana told her stories to Mariam, she would always instruct her on the basics of society. “Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always find a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam” (Hosseini 7). This is the lesson that Nana teaches Mariam after she tells her the story of how she was born. Nana was the housekeeper of Jalil, Mariam’s father, until she showed signs of pregnancy. Instead of blaming Jalil for sleeping with other women while he was married, they blamed Nana. “The collective gasp of Jalil’s family sucked the air out of Herat. His in-laws swore blood would flow. The wives demanded that he throw her out. Nana’s own father, who was a lowly stone carver in the nearby village of Gul Daman, disowned her” (Hosseini 6).

                A decade later, the injustice became worse when the Taliban took hold of the power. “The following day, Kabul was overrun by trucks…Armed, bearded men in black turbans sat in their beds…Girls are forribben from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately. Women are forbidden from working.” (Hosseini 278). Rasheed was ultimately unaffected by the new enforced rules written by the Taliban. All he had to do was grow out his beard and pray 5 times a day. Mariam and Laila, however, were greatly incapitated. Of course the Taliban seized power when Laila was pregnant with Zalmai. “ ‘This hospital no longer treats women,’ the guard barked…‘But this is a women’s hospital!’ a woman shouted from behind Mariam…Mariam had heard the announcement, in January of that year, that men and women would be seen in different hospitals” (Hosseini 285). 

Chracter Development: Tariq the Chivalrous

Tariq is an important character in the second part of the book. He is the friend and, eventually, soul mate of Laila. Tariq is like all other boys except for one difference. “She’d kicked him in his shin, not his artificial one but his real one” (Hosseini 107). She and Tariq were the closest of friends and the artificial leg didn’t seem to inhibit the friendship. The other characteristic about Tariq that stands out is that he displays courage and selflessness. “The others understood too when Tariq straightened up, standing on one leg. When he began hopping towards Khadim, the charging him, his unstrapped leg raised high over his shoulder like a sword…Khadim never bothered Laila again” (Hosseini 134).

                In 1992, Tariq turned sixteen. He had shown some growth over the years. “And he was smoking, another new habit, which he’d picked up from the guys Laila spotted him hanging around these days…This was a new entre in his repertoire of poses: back to the wall, arms crossed, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, his good leg casually bent” (Hosseini 169). Although Tariq picked up a cancerous habit, it did not seem to alter Laila’s perception of him. To Laila, Tariq is still that white knight from their childhood. “Laila swooned inside. She tried to read his face but was met by a look that was indecipherable: The cheerful, cretinous grin at odds with the narrow, half-desperate look in his eyes” (Hosseini 170)

                The last time Tariq is seen in the book is the fourth part. At this time, he and Laila are battle worn. “Tariq has headaches now…The headaches began in Nasir Bagh, he says, then worsened in prison” (Hosseini 375). Tariq and Laila get married in this part. When their gazes meet at the altar, they studied each other’s faces. “There were no tears, no wedding-day smiles, no whispered oaths of long-lasting love…faces aged beyond their years, at the pouches and lines and sags that now marked their once-scrubbed, youthful faces” (Hosseini 376). The difference was palpable from childhood to adulthood. Tariq had gone from a crusader defending his fair maiden to a war-scarred veteran.

Tragic Hero: The Legacy of Mariam

Mariam started out as a lowly girl who lived in a kolba (hut) with her outcast mother. They were both cast away because Mariam was an illegitimate child of the wealthy man, Jalil, who didn’t want to spoil his reputation. “Nana had been one of the housekeepers. Until her belly began to swell” (Hosseini 6) Because of Jalil’s decision to outcast Nana and Mariam, Nana has bitter feelings towards anything associated with Jalil. She knew that the only reason that Jalil kept her alive is because of the baby, Mariam, so she moved as far away as possible from him into a kolba that Jalil built. “His idea of penance” (Hosseini  11).

Although Nana talked about Jalil in a hateful way, Mariam loved her father. Jalil visited his harami (bastard) regularly and Mariam would long for these brief visits. “Finally, on Thursdays, all she could do was sit against the wall, eyes glued to the steam and wait…She always held her breath as she watched him go. She held her breath and, in her head, counted seconds. She pretended that each second that she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day with Jalil” (Hosseini 20-24). Mariam worshipped Jalil so much that she wished for a trip to the movies from him for her birthday. Of course Nana was unhappy about this. “Of all the daughter I could have had, why did God give me an ungrateful one like you?” (Hosseini 27). Being the teenager that Mariam was, she didn’t listen to Nana and waited for Jalil at the stream, later going into the city to search for him. When she came back unsuccessful, she found Nana hanging in a tree.

Mariam’s fatal flaw shows in this first incident. Being brought up in a modest setting, she was a pretty selfless girl. She didn’t ask for much and was very apologetic for her mother’s suffering. However, she seemed to always question society. When Nana would complain about the pain Mariam caused her in birth “It did not occur to young Mariam to ponder the unfairness of apologizing for the manner of her own birth” (Hosseini  11). When Nana said that Mariam can’t go to school “Be reasonable. Come now. If the girls wants – ” (Hosseini  18). Like all tragic heroes, her questioning eventually gets her killed by the Taliban but, in turn, the country’s balance gets restored.

Historical Context: The Soviet Invasion

Since Hosseini wrote a historical fiction, his writings aren’t full of facts and information. Although most of the facts that he includes are true, he lacks detail to back up the facts. I was grateful for this type of writing style because I dislike non-fiction books. At the same time, I wanted to learn more because the Soviet invasion has been mentioned in The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns yet I don’t know much about it. Like any other teenager that wants to learn information, especially for a project, I turned to Google.

                During my searches, I found a rather interesting article that captivated my attention with its casual nature.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/charlie-wilson-congressman-whose-support-for-the-mujahideen-helped-force-the-soviet-union-out-of-afghanistan-1898180.html

The article was about a Congressman in the United States. Charlie Wilson used his power to secretly channel weapons into Afghanistan to help the Mujahedeen ward off the Soviet invaders. Charlie, however, was not the cleanest man. “He relished women, booze and, from time to time, cocaine” (Rupert Cornwell). Being a former navy lieutenant in the Cold War and a Pentagon intelligence officer, Charlie was intrigued by the struggles faced by Afghani refugees during the invasion. Using his power as a House budget subcommittee member, Charlie sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Stinger missiles and rifles to the Mujahedeen. His efforts did not go unwasted. “Three years later, Moscow concluded that the war was unwinnable and pulled out…Pakistan’s former prime minister Zia ul-Haq replied, ‘Charlier did it’ ” (Rupert Cornwell). Although Charlie was unlawful in a Wolf of Wall Street style with the cocaine and strippers, he was later recognised as an “Honoured Colleague” by the CIA.

                I feel that this article is an accurate representation of the occurrence of the Soviet Invasion. The Russians invaded Afghanistan to expand their Red Nation and America responded to the invasion by giving money and guns to the local rebel forces. Charlie Wilson is the classic American governor. He is crude and bawdy yet he gets involved in wars that America has no business for doing. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the locals are wondering when their savior is going to come and stop the war. America didn’t have official involvement in the war so, through the local’s eyes, the war continues to rage onwards.