The World of Differing Women

Women are treated differently depending on the culture of the area.  In some places, they are equal where as in others they are considered property.  Although US people struggle a lot with pride, especially when men think they can do a job better than women, we are fairly good at keeping men and women on equal terms.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, it is seen that this is not necessarily true everywhere.  Women are treated as property in Afghanistan.  They have little choice in who they marry, that is their parents decision.  Their purpose in this society is to cook dinner, clean, give their husbands children, and do whatever their husband commands.  They cannot have a job and cannot show their faces in public because it is their husband's property.  Because of this, Mariam starts to depend on her husband for her happiness.  If he praises her, she has a good day.  If he is in a bad mood, she is too.  All she wants to do is please her husband, but as time goes by and she does not produce any children, it gets harder and harder for her to do.  Therefore, they both are miserable.  I believe this is probably still true in the Middle East countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.  From the pictures that I see, the women are always covered up.  This hints that they are still considered their husband's property.  They also cannot have an education like that offered to women in the US.  Since they are considered property, most of them are abused and mistreated.  That is not fair to these women.  The men of the Middle East are underestimating their potential and their power.  The women could help contribute to their countries in ways that could give them a step up and possibly compete with the other countries of the world.  Despite this, the men won't give them a chance.  Plus if the women wanted to try to advance in the world, they would be abused and/or killed.  If the woman gets sick of being abused and tries to escape, she will definitely be killed if her husband catches her.  This is not right or fair.  I believe women have just as much right as men do to an education, jobs, and happiness.  According to Plato's Cave though, if a woman from the Middle East were to go to the US to get an education and realized the potential of women, she would most likely try to bring it back to her people.  However, they would not accept it and would reject her from their society either by abusing or shunning her.  The women would be too scared to fight for it, even if they thought what the educated woman said was true, because the men have had power for so long that they can't imagine a change.  Plus the change is illegal over there.  So now the woman, if still alive, does not belong in the Middle East because she is educated and doesn't quite fit in with the Americans because we are judgemental towards the Middle East.  This would discourage anyone from trying to gain an education and/or freedom.  It should not be like that.