Have you ever wondered what a world without discrimination would be like? A world where women are the same as men? The objectification of women has become a social issue which many people don’t know about. It has become something so regular and usual, that women don’t notice the way they are being materialized. To be more specific, I would like to focus in the role of women in Islam.

I have read A 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and considered it a great piece of text to get more knowledge about women’s job in Islam. Before reading the book, I didn’t know much about how women were treated in Islam. I didn’t even know much about Islam and their different beliefs. I thought they were just discriminated in the Islamic community and they weren’t respected or valued. I knew that women there were supposed to wear coverings over their hair, face, or body, but I didn’t know how complicated the religion there is.

In A 1000 Splendid Suns, when Laila comes into Rasheed’s life, we can clearly see how women are seen as objects that can be replaced. The figurative language helps us recognize how Mariam claims to be substituted. Rasheed symbolically replaces Mariam when he“let[s] on that he'd traded in [her] old wedding ring for” a ring for his second wife. The replacement of the wedding ring is a symbol that represents not only how the ring is replaced, but also how Rasheed is replacing his wife. This demonstrates how women are seen as objects in the Islamic community, and how they can be easily replaced with different women every time. Here we can see the difference between men and women, and how men can have many wives to chose from, many women to work for them. When men have more women, they have more “power”. More richness. More wealth. More social value.  Meanwhile, women are considered material things, not human beings.

For Mariam and Laila, living under these circumstances wasn’t easy. During those times in Afghanistan, women’s rights were not even considered. One of the most important lesson this book taught me, is that even though things were very tough, these women were able to overcome the obstacles that they faced throughout the book. I can notice how these type of problems are not fictional, they actually happen in many different parts of the world. In countries where religion is taken so seriously, like Islamic countries, everything the Quran says, they follow. Everything. The Quran is their holy book. Their rules. Everything they believe in.

Some passages in the Quran that support the idea that men have authority over women, are based on the fact that men are responsible for a woman’s financial support. This can be enacted in different ways, now that the Quran also states that men can have many wives, but all should be treated equally. In the case of A 1000 Splendid Suns, Rasheed does not treat his both wives equally, creating a sort of tension and competition between them.

Nowadays, men and women study specific verses from the Quran to figure out what they actually mean. Have they been interpreting the Quran in the wrong way for all this time? Even though muslim men believe that they are superior to women, there are still verses in the Quran which state the opposite, but they do not notice the meaning.

After reading this amazing book, I noticed how different things are. My thoughts of before were reinforced, and also I learned new things and got a different perspective about the role of women in Islam. Women are not only discriminated, but they are also seen as objects, as property that men own. I learned that the Islamic community is not that simple, it has so many things which are very difficult to understand for people who have not had the opportunity to actually live in this community. This is very different to where I live, but at the same time all so similar.

I personally think not much has changed from then to now in Islamic countries. Even though though this is just a book, women in Islam still face these kind of conflicts. In my point of view, the problem of women being objectified is still present and not only in the Islamic community. This is a worldwide problem, where women are discriminated every day. Compared to old times, women have gained a lot of rights they didn’t have before, but objectification is still present.

On the other hand, many people believe that women are liberated, rather than oppressed in Islamic countries. As the Quran states "I shall not lose sight of the labor of any of you who labors in My way, be it man or woman; each of you is equal to the other" (3:195). Even though it is clearly said that men and women are treated equally, people in Islam don’t follow this. Women in Islam are seen as much less than men, and they are certainly not equal. This verse can be considered a counterclaim, but it makes no sense because people in Islam don’t apply it. If the Quran is everything they believe in, why don’t they pay attention to these type of verses?

In conclusion, women were and still are objectified in all parts of the world. Specifically in the Islamic community, they are considered property of men and not as individuals. I think that this ideology should be diminished in our community, our worldwide community. Equal: a person or thing that is the same as another in status or quality. The same. People should become aware that women and men were created equally. To be treated equally. To feel equal. To be equal. No woman should feel discriminated, objectified, or oppressed. Discriminated. Objectified. Oppressed.