Freedoms of Women....Gone

In America women have the freedom to vote, hold public office, participate in the workforce, marry whomever they want, they have the freedom to be themselves and not feel pressure from stereotypes.  Americans do not realize that we take these freedoms for granted, and this is made very clear in Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.  This novel reveals the trails, failures, and triumphs of two Afghan women and how their freedom is taken away by them first from their husband, and then from their government. 

Afghanistan, before the Taliban invasion, women were allowed to work in courts, offices, allowed to be lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, they were even allowed to wear 'short' skirts.  Women had freedom just like any other democratic government.  However, this all changed when the Taliban cam into power after Russia had left Afghanistan.  Women were forced out of school, out of their jobs, if they were doctors or nurses they were 'allowed' to work in a woman's hospital.  Women were forced to stay home, watch the family, they wore burqas, and veils to cover all but their eyes.  Women were treated like animals, as men were free to beat their wives as they deemed fit.  Why have we traveled backwards instead of going forward?

Women are forced into arranged marriages, and if they protest to the arrangement they can and mostly likely will be thrown into prison.  Women are seen as inferior and nothing but an object that can be easily replaced.  Who gives the right to men or a government to treat women like this?  This novel by Hosseini has opened my eyes because I have always thought that women in the Middle East were always treated like that, and they never had freedom, but that is far from the truth.  Women, governments, and men should fight for the freedoms of women in 'third-world' countries because no one, no one deserves to be treated like this.