If I Were A Boy

Wajihah Baig #15AndMarried #GetBackInTheKitchen #MakeMeASandwich #WomensRights

Khaled Hosseini
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan Mother taught Persian (Farsi) literature Father worked for Foreign Ministry Relocated to Paris in 1976 Could not go back to Afghanistan in 1980

Went to medical school

History of Afghanistan
Soviets invaded in 1979 and put Daoud Khan as their leader Mujahedeen were rebels that fought against the soviets Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989 Anti-western terrorists Womens Rights

Writing Style
The Grapes of Wrath Incorporates personal experiences and culture Point-of-view Journalistic style Plot-line is similar to other novels

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Set in Afghanistan from 1969 until 2003 Mariam Laila Rasheed Their freedom slowly begins to diminish as the Taliban begin to take over

Hosseinis Culture
More personal Farsi words and phrases
Harami

Grabs the readers attention Paints a vivid image of the Afghani culture

Point-of-View
Mariam vs. Laila Two women who were different ages Went to Afghanistan in 2003 A lot of different groups suffered; women suffered the most

Journalistic Style
Provides a lot of facts and statistics within his novel
They were a guerilla force, he said, made up of young Pashtun men whose families had fled to Pakistan during the war against the Soviets (Hosseini 273).

Did not intend to write this way

The thing is, I've never done research with the intention of writing, it's just things that I have absorbed. I went in 2003, for instance, on my own, and I just wanted to educate myself. I just wanted to gain sort of a human dimension to this new story, just for personal reasons. A lot of those stories stayed with me (Goodreads).

Plot-Line
Similar to The Kite Runner Familial aspects Friendships
Hassan and Amir Laila and Tariq

A Moment of Happiness by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

A moment of happiness, you and I sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I. We feel the flowing water of life here, you and I, with the garden's beauty and the birds singing. The stars will be watching us, and we will show them what it is to be a thin crescent moon. You and I unselfed, will be together, indifferent to idle speculation, you and I. The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar as we laugh together, you and I. In one form upon this earth, and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

Two people in love who are bonding and becoming closer

Laila and Mariam

Out in nature
Laila and Mariam grew closer while sitting outside underneath a tree
As gunfire cracked in the hills, they watched the clouds slide over the moon and the last of the

Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. It is important to have dreams and go after them Life would be meaningless without them Laila and Mariam both had dreams and never truly gave up on some of them

Food
Green tea Mariam disliked Laila when they first met Bonded over drinking Chai, tea, in the yard one evening Became a tradition

Conclusion
There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they dont teach it in school. Look at me Only one skill, and its this: tahamul. Endure (Hosseini 4). How women were affected by the war Eye opening

Works Cited
Works Cited Charney, Noah. "Khaled Hosseini: How I Write." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 7 Nov. 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print. "Interview with Khaled Hosseini." Goodreads. N.p., June 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Marciniak, Jennifer. "Join Academia.edu & Share Your Research with the World." "Suns and Daughters: The Role of Marxism and Women in Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns," N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Sachs, Andrea. "Khaled Hosseini." Time. Time Inc., 05 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Khaled Hosseini Interview." Academy of Achievement. N.p., 3 July 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.