On Saturday, May 31st, we gathered at Sheila's home for a discussion of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. We had a lively conversation before we got into talking about the book, as we devoured the wonderful spread Sheila provided, plus the extras people brought.
We talked about the relationship between the two main characters, Lila and Mariam. While it was touching that they at first could not stand each other but later came to love each other to the point where Mariam killed their husband Rasheed as he was beating Lila, I found the book mostly brought out my anger at the ongoing oppression of women in fundamentalist cultures, particularly fundamentalist Islam.
We did note that quite a few of the rules and regulations set down by the Taliban weren't all that different from the strictures observed by Hasidic women! I'm not all that suprised by this because fanatical religion is fanatical religion, and it seems most fanatical religion thrives on oppressing women. The big difference is that under the Taliban women could be arrested, beaten, or killed, and no one would have cared. Those rules were law in Afghanistan and that is not the case here in terms of the Hasidim. Nor is it likely to be since they appear only concerned with whether those in their own sects follow their rules.
At the end we veered off into a discussion of politics and some of us said we felt the media has been against Hillary Clinton because there is still a large contingent of Americans who do not want a woman to become President.
Before we left, we made plans all the way through to the end of September. The next book we will read will be The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I'm looking forward to that.
Sheila runs an excellent discussion and is always well-prepared to lead us with thought provoking questions. Because of her, the BHC Book Club is a major success.
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