Outside Reading, Week 3, Post B

I think I am finally beginning to understand why Khaled Hosseini dedicated this book "to Haris and Farah, both the noor of my eyes, and to the women of Afghanistan". After a little research, I found that Haris and Farah are his son and daughter, respectively, and that Hosseini is a goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. In addition, I found that Hosseini was living in Afghanistan during the time of the Soviet invasion and the following war, which explains why his novel is set in that time period. Because of all these things, Hosseini was able to see first-hand the abuse and mistreatment that women suffered during that time period and even today in parts of the Middle East.
For example, let's look at Mariam. She is a bastard child who is forced to live out in the country with her demented and outcast mother and visited very seldomly by a father who doesn't even love her. Eventually, her mother dies and Mariam becomes old enough to marry off and is given to the highest bidder who only wants her to cook, clean, and reproduce. Needless to say, Mariam's situation is not the typical childhood that an American girl would expect. However, this process is far too common in the Middle East. Hosseini, being the worldly and experienced man that he is, saw this and believed that this injustice must be exposed. Hosseini tells the story from Mariam's point of view and lets us see her thoughts so we can empathize with her. In doing this, Hosseini exposes one of the many forms of abuse that women in the Middle East endure everyday and in turn, lives up to his dedication.