Forenote:
My reviews are not traditional critiques – they’re part book reflection, part stream of consciousness. A mirror, often, of what a story awakens within me.
Why Isn’t A Thousand Splendid Suns More Celebrated?
I often wonder why A Thousand Splendid Suns doesn’t receive more widespread recognition than The Kite Runner. Is it because it tells the story of the lesser children of God – women!
Two Afghan women caught in the brutal crossfire of war, patriarchy, and oppression. Is it because it’s a woman’s story? And in a world built largely by men, are stories of women still considered secondary?
This book pierced me more deeply than anything else I’ve read in years. Maybe it’s because of my growing sensitivity to the global suffering of women – an ache that has slowly embedded itself into my consciousness.
The Pandemic Echoes: Women Behind Closed Doors
Do you remember COVID? The eerie silence of locked homes and louder headlines. One recurring theme was the growing misery of women. Frustrated men trapped inside with no outlets, and women – wives, daughters, and sisters – bearing the brunt of that frustration. Now, multiply that frustration by a hundred, and you’ll begin to see the women of war-torn Afghanistan.
Add to that the deadly layer of religious radicalisation – and you’ve got a living nightmare.
Domestic violence is still an underrated issue—unseen, unfelt by many. But this story… the story of Mariam and Laila… it will choke you.
Even imagining it is a burden on my soul.
How can the one meant to PROTECT you become your tormentor?
This book left me deeply angry – with society, with systems, and, I’ll admit, with God. The God we’ve always referred to as Him. Is that why He allows men to unleash every imaginable cruelty on women?
This was the first book that haunted my dreams.
Tell Your Women: Never Tolerate Abuse
Please tell your women to never tolerate physical abuse. Teach your daughters to walk away. Build safe havens for them. This world already weighs them down in too many ways.
And most importantly, raise better men.
Once, in my gender studies class, my professor said something I’ll never forget:
“If I hold a dick in one hand and a vagina in the other, who holds the power?”
I was left numb. Speechless.
Books: The Mirrors We Need
Reading books like this reinforces the need to read – not just for knowledge, but to expand our empathy. To reflect. To feel the lives of others beyond our own. We cannot afford to live in a bubble of self-absorption while the world burns quietly outside our walls. And as always, Khaled Hosseini draws you into the bleeding heart of his homeland:
“Laila, my love, the only enemy that Afghanistan cannot defeat is himself.”
The Larger Picture: Identity as a Weapon
This book makes you question not just gender dynamics but the very constructs of identity. Religion. Race. Caste. Culture. Each one, so often, used not to unite but to divide. Every group believing itself to be the righteous one, the superior one.
Apply that to borders. To politics. To history. As long as people continue to look down upon each other, this world will only become more fragmented – more intolerable.