A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in Afghanistan, where women's status in the family home, and even in society, is extremely limited and they have significantly less freedom compared to their male counterparts. This story describes the lives of Afghan women, the struggles and thoughts they live with Mariam, Nana and Laila are the three main female characters in the book who experience life as less equal and the only significant thing in the. life is motherhood.Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, also features sexism against women. Both A Thousand Splendid Suns and Hamlet have stood the test of time, the former being written in the mid-1900s and the latter in the early 1600s. ; despite their powerful effects on societies around the world, both texts reveal discrimination against women, and the sexist actions perpetrated against women in Afghan and Shakespearean society cannot be overlooked. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One lesson that can be gleaned from reading A Thousand Splendid Suns is that women in Afghan culture are only used to bearing children and being servants to men. This is first shown by relating Nana to Jalil. Nana was a servant of Jalil before she was exiled due to being pregnant with Jalil's child. It is unclear whether Jalil forced himself on Nana, or enchanted Nana, but with his short stature and status as a woman, he was able to exile her and their daughter, Mariam, to a small hut outside Herat. Mariam decides to leave her kolba, or hut, one day and travel to Herat to see Jalil. Once Nana realized that Mariam was gone, she had nothing else to live for because her sense of motherhood was lost. This ended with Mariam returning home and seeing that Nana had hanged herself. Jalil, being known as “one of the richest men in Herat” (Hosseini 6), did not even help support Nana and Mariam, even though he is very capable of doing so. Nana says Jalil told his wives that she forced herself on him, but in their society it is the woman's fault. The fact that Nana is a servant of Jalil is a key factor in this story because the belittling of Nana and her status as a servant in Jalil's house shows that women are not only exploited, but are not given much to live for. Once Jalil's family finds a husband for Mariam, she can experience what it truly means to be a woman in her society. Aside from not being able to go to school and get an education, Mariam doesn't really face the difficulties of being a woman in her society until she is forcibly married to Rasheed. Once Rasheed and Mariam get married, Mariam no longer has any power over their relationship. After a week of pain, Rasheed finally tells Mariam that it's time for her to start acting like a wife. This involved servant-like behaviors: washing the house, sweeping the floors, cooking food, and running errands. It also brought about the act of begetting children. The fact that women are financially dependent on their husbands in Afghan society shows that women are seen as property and servants, because they cannot provide for themselves. What women do in their society is not controlled by themselves due to the discrimination and status they hold within. the community. They are not only told how to dress, but also how to live their lives and what to do with them. When Rasheed sees a teacher walking down the street revealing her face and body, he says, “frankly I am embarrassed to see a man who has lost control of his wife” (Hosseini 70). Rasheedhe then goes on to explain how he believes a woman's face is her husband's business. This portrays women as property and shows that when a woman shows control over her body, she is viewed poorly by other men in society. Since it is not Mariam's choice to decide what to wear, Rasheed finally tells her that from now on she will have to wear a burqa.when she leaves the house. Although Mariam states that “the loss of peripheral vision was unnerving, and she didn't like the suffocating way the pleated fabric kept pressing around her mouth” (Hosseini 72), Rasheed didn't care. He didn't want to dishonor his honor and pride like other men do who bring their wives into his shop. From Rasheed's point of view, when a man brings his wife to his shop and they wear makeup and skirts, he sees them as soft. This mentality, that men own their women and women are not free to represent themselves, shows that women in Afghan society have very little control over their bodies. Looking at the similarities between the women in Hamlet and A Thousand Splendid Suns, one can notice that the women are both described as weak and both have no decision-making skills in their lives. In both writings, it is clear that women are treated significantly less equally than men. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, women are usually covered from head to toe so that they cannot be seen by other men in society. In Hamlet, Hamlet puts on a play, but the law forbids women from acting in plays; this was a common practice in those days. In Hamlet's play, men dress up as women because the women were not even given the opportunity to perform. Women in Hamlet not being able to present themselves the way they want and not having the same opportunities as men show the similarity of both societies. Another thing to consider in both writings is the portrayal of flawed women. In Hamlet, Gertrude always looks to Claudius regarding Hamlet's behavior, even though Hamlet is Gertrude's son. Furthermore, Gertrude promptly marrying Claudius after her husband's death can be seen as Gertrude's need for attention. While in A Thousand Splendid Suns, every female character is always considered flawed by the men in their society. When Mariam cooks Rasheed a meal he doesn't like, Rasheed goes out and gets her some rocks to put in her mouth and chew. Just because a meal prepared by Mariam is not up to Rasheed's standards, he abuses her, which shows that there is no room for mistakes or flaws for women in their society. Finally, a common parallel between the two texts shows us that men are manipulative. In Hamlet, Claudius hides his manipulative behaviors by acting like a caring person towards Hamlet to gain Gertrude's trust. Another representation of manipulativeness in Hamlet is Hamlet manipulating Ophelia's emotions throughout the play. Hamlet always leaves Ophelia in doubt throughout the play. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed threatens to beat Mariam unless Laila has sex with him. Rasheed also manipulates Laila by saying that if he didn't, he would hand her over to the Taliban for her dealings with Tariq. Although the lyrics are set in totally different time periods, the treatment of women doesn't seem to change much. The discrimination against women in modern American society does not compare to the inequalities they have faced throughout history, and the perfect example is the treatment of women. women in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In America today there are countless feminist movements that would not have been tolerated in the past. The women are.