All over the world, women are fighting for their rights and being oppressed by varying forces - most commonly the government and their cultures/society's they live in. Although the rights of many women have been augmented in the past few decades dramatically in parts of the world, some countries are still struggling for their equality.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and Laila live under the Taliban and are oppressed in almost every way conceivable - they are forced to wear burqas in public, they can not be seen in public without a man, they can not own a home of their own, they can't have their own job, and so on. The reality is that this is how life was for hundreds of thousands of women in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban, and although since then a lot of strides have been made, there still exists
The issue of women's rights and equality is difficult to deal with because it isn't simply a matter of changing the law to say that women are equal, it is a matter of changing the perspectives and opinions of everyone living in that country. In Afghanistan, with the Taliban being washed out of their country for many years now, women are still oppressed simply because of the cultural and religious views of many people living there. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and Laila live under the Taliban and are oppressed in almost every way conceivable - they are forced to wear burqas in public, they can not be seen in public without a man, they can not own a home of their own, they can't have their own job, and so on. The reality is that this is how life was for hundreds of thousands of women in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban, and although since then a lot of strides have been made, there still are problems that exist in the country and the way that women are treated. For example, although it is no longer a law that women wear a burqa or headdress, not wearing one can be seen as rude and is often looked down on. This can be seen in the recent visit of Michelle Obama to Afghanistan, in which she opted out of wearing a scarf to cover her head, and while her husband was greeted with smiles and handshakes, she did not get so much as a glance.
In the United States, although women have been considered equal since 1920 when the 19th amendment allowed them to vote, women are still treated differently than men in many aspects. With the recently popularized Like A Girl commercial, which addresses how doing something "like a girl" has a negative connotation to it, it is clear that "being a girl" has a lot of bad associations with it.
In my opinion, getting equal rights with men isn't a matter of changing laws anymore, it's a matter of changing perspectives. Women and men are different, that much is indisputable - but the way they are treated shouldn't be. Women are just as capable as being engineers as they are being teachers as they are being mothers - and it is up to the individual woman to decide which path she wants to take. At the same time, though, I think that men shouldn't be questioned when they say they want to be a figure skater or a chef or a dad or a doctor - each of these is a job in itself, and it is up to the individual to decide what path they want to take. Everyone should have the right to choose their own life's course, and nobody should question what someone chooses to do with their life.
