War benefits no one, and this especially resonates with the most affected victims of the Taliban regime: women.  Women in Kabul, Afghanistan were doctors, lawyers, and teachers.  This social status transformed when the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in 1979.  From that moment on, women were the lowest class in society.  As the focus of Taliban violence, women are critical to any discussion of the Taliban regime.  

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is an analysis of the regime, covering thirty years of Afghan history from the beginning of the Taliban to the collapse.  Published in 2007, it analyzes life in Afghanistan through women’s eyes and their journey through adulthood.  The two main characters, Laila and Mariam, form a partnership rooted in love and sacrifice.  As the story unfolds, Laila gives birth to Aziza at a segregated hospital.  She is launched into the struggle of motherhood as she tries to give stability to her traumatized children amidst her country’s instability.  She and Mariam grapple with their circumstances, and physically and mentally suffer through institutionalized violence and oppression.  Although it is argued that A Thousand Splendid Suns is an oversimplification of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Hosseini offers an accurate portrayal of Afghan life in the early 2000s through his analysis of the loss of women’s resources by the Taliban and long-term post-traumatic stress of wartime violence.

One accurate portrayal of women’s mistreatment in the novel is the underfunding of female hospitals.  In a research article covering women’s conditions in Afghanistan, author Sangeeta Tomar states, “In January 1997 Taliban officials announced a policy of segregating men and women into separate hospitals.  They did not strictly enforce it until September 1997, when the Ministry of Public Health ordered all hospitals in Kabul to suspend medical services to the city’s half-million women, all but one poorly equipped clinic for women” (Tomar 154).  Hosseini includes this struggle in the novel when Laila and Mariam travel across the city to find a hospital that treats women when Laila goes into labor.  Every hospital in the city turns them away, and they resort to the all-women’s clinic.  Then, Laila has to undergo a C-section without the necessary equipment.  When Mariam asks the doctor about the procedure, the doctor says, “‘You think I want it this way?’ she said.  ‘What do you want me to do?  They won’t give me what I need.  I have no X-ray either, no suction, no oxygen, not even simple antibiotics’” (Hosseini 290).  The female doctor assisting Laila reveals the severity of the situation:  there is nothing for women, not even in their most vulnerable moment of childbirth.  At this segregated hospital, she is cut open on a cold table without anesthesia, and it is barbaric and animalistic.  Not only is the discrepancy between men and women reflected in this scene, but also how dangerous it is to be a woman in Afghanistan.  Laila is not the only woman forced into these circumstances– all Afghan women face this crisis.  Afghan women have no control over their healthcare, and as a result, no control over their bodies.  Therefore, A Thousand Splendid Suns accurately captures the distress of underfunded female hospitals in Kabul.

Another portrayal of the loss of women’s resources is the Taliban rejecting humanitarian aid and funding to the women of Afghanistan.  Author Sangeeta Toma, reports again on Afghan women during the humanitarian crisis in her research article.  She states, “RAWA [The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan] campaigned for women’s rights and provided education and health facilities for women and children.  It had set up a number of educational and health programmes in Afghanistan but had to scale down these operations because of the threats it received” (Tomar 157).  Hosseini analyzes the failure of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the women’s hospital in Kabul.  At the all-women’s clinic in Kabul, the doctor points out to Laila and Mariam, “‘When NGOs offer money, the Taliban turn them away.  Or they funnel the money to the places that cater to men’” (Hosseini 290).  The foundations that combat Taliban mistreatment face abuse and fear-mongering.  The Taliban’s followers were so overpowering and dangerous that RAWA was forced to close for their safety.  In the literature, the doctor mentions the NGOs, like RAWA, attempting to assist women, and she says that the Taliban will not let them offer relief.  The war against women is institutionalized; the Taliban ensures women are left defenseless.  The relief is brought to the men in society, while women are left to struggle on their own.  This disparity between the male hospitals and this underfunded, understaffed hospital further develops Hosseini’s novel covering the loss of women’s resources under the Taliban regime.  

Lastly, the post-traumatic stress of wartime violence that children faced accurately portrays Afghan life under the Taliban regime.  In a UNICEF survey discussing the effects on children between the ages of eight and eighteen, the results “indicated that 41% had lost one or more parents because of the conflict, and over half had witnessed torture or violent death.  Over 90% of the children interviewed expressed the fear of dying in the conflict” (Bhutta 351).  The survey results reveal that “Over 80% of the children interviewed felt they could not cope with events and that life was not worth living” (Bhutta 351).  This stress continues after the Taliban collapses too.  Hosseini implements the mental health crisis of this generation into the plot.  Laila decides to move her family back into the city, but her daughter Aziza is traumatized.  Laila recalls, “The children need reassuring, each in their own way.  Laila has to sit down with an agitated Aziza, who still has nightmares, who’d been startled to tears the week before when someone had shot rounds into the sky at a wedding nearby.  Laila has to explain to Aziza that when they return to Kabul the Taliban won’t be there; that there will not be any fighting, and that she will not be sent back to the orphanage” (Hosseini 391).  Aziza panics; she has nightmares; she has triggers from warfare.  She fears for her life when she thinks about living in Kabul again.  She is a part of the younger generation that lived under Taliban control.  These children have witnessed wartime violence, and see themselves reflected in every death.  As a result, they lose their will to live and their self-worth.  As victims of the war grow in excitement to see their nation rebuilt, Hosseini pays careful attention to the children of Afghanistan in this novel and accurately depicts the post-traumatic stress they face.  

This period in history called for the complete removal of women from Afghanistan’s public sphere, and Hosseini accurately depicts the delicacy and pain of discrimination.  Women lost control of everything they knew in Kabul:  their bodies, healthcare, safety, and protection.  Their hospitals are depleted, and the Taliban will not let anyone come to their service.  Afghan children, their children, suffer from post-traumatic stress, and their pain lasts beyond the Taliban regime.  Hosseini leaves the readers with the important message that the women of Afghanistan were never meant to be forgotten.  A Thousand Splendid Suns is concrete proof that women bore more burdens than they ever deserved.  Afghan women deserve recognition and protection, now and forever.