What If?

Aziza from A Thousand Splendid Suns was living currently in Afghanistan

Writer: Karishma Mishra

(3rd Year, BA Journalism Hons)

Editor: Ayushi Rani

Khaled Hosseini's novel 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' revolves around the lives of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women who bond over their shared hardships as the wives of an abusive husband, Rasheed. Aziza is the illegitimate daughter of Laila and Tariq (her beloved, from whom she got separated when he fled away from Kabul with his family). Due to depleting rations at home, Rasheed forces Laila to send Aziza to an orphanage. But later Mariam kills Rasheed to protect Laila and Tariq, for which she is publicly executed by the Taliban. Aziza is rescued from the orphanage, and Laila, Tariq, Aziza, and her brother, Zalmai, together escape to Pakistan. Two years later, they return to their native land after the fall of the Taliban.

Laila and Tariq raised their daughter Aziza as a strong, confident, and educated girl. For 18 years, she has lived a free and independent life until 15th August 2021. The day her life comes to a standstill. She hears on the radio that Afghanistan has been taken over by the Taliban regime after the US withdrew her militant troops. An involuntary shiver escapes her quivering lips. The name 'Taliban' is not new to her. She has a very horrifying image of them and their reign through the stories told to her by her parents. She does not remember those atrocities, as she was very young at the time, but now she could imagine all the harsh stories coming back to life.

Since the death of her parents and her brother, the students she taught at the local school and her colleagues have become her family. Now she can neither talk to anybody because of the network shutdown nor can she go anywhere because women are prohibited to go outside without a male member. The house she lives in feels like a slammer with every passing day.

Finally, Aziza decides to defy the restrictions imposed on women by secretly teaching the girls in her neighbourhood, as they weren't allowed to go to school anymore. Whenever she lacks motivation, she remembers stories of Mariam, her Badi Ammi, who not only saved her but also is a source of inspiration for her. She still feels her heart beating faster when a fighter jet passes over her house, but she has become more resilient towards temporary dangers and the feeling of loneliness. She often writes letters to her parents and Mariam in order to feel connected to them.

Aziza does not know what will happen to her country and its citizens or to herself, but every day she wakes up and prays to Allah for a regret-free death and sleeps with the hope that the new day will bring a good change for Afghanistan and for humanity.

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