more on A Thousand Splendid Suns

The news today included a suicide bombing at a Kabul, Afghanistan elementary school, where children were receiving their end-of-year certificates. A dozen children were killed, and this is just one of several schools bombed, supposedly by a war lord who is waging "jihad" against the neighborhood. Its happening again--the bombing of innocents in the name of God in Kabul.

This fascinating and well told story is seen from the eyes of two women whose lives intertwine during the period from the Soviet occupation, to the bombing of Kabul by war lords filling the vacuum they left, to the takeover of the Taliban, and liberation by the Americans. Its hard to understand how a civilization and a fundamentalist version of Islam could hold women in such contempt, enslavement, and could abuse them so systematically. Unfortunately, Kabul's war lords and the Taliban are vying for the right to suppress and oppress the Afghan population once more.

Khaled Husseini finishes this sad but hopeful book with a summary of his work with Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

Hosseini, who wrote the Kite Runner, is a great story-teller, and brings such a unique perspective to a part of the world most of us know nothing about. I've just read the first part of the book, about Mariam, who leads a very circumscribed life from birth. The second part is about an entirely new character, Laila, who grows up in a "modern" family. The juxtaposition of conservative and liberal life styles before the Taliban imposed "sharia" on the whole country is a nostalgic backdrop to the current situation. More later...