So, the whole time that I was reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I kept thinking, "How can these people treat women this way? Disregarding anatomy, women are the same as men. Neither gender is more intelligent. We are all human." The more I thought about it, the angrier I felt women were considered property. Human beings can not be property. They are living things with feelings. What kind of country treats people that way? Then I realized that our country did, or at least it used to. Americans had slaves who were considered pieces of property that could be traded and used as their owner pleased. Slaves in the early 1800s were very similar to Afghan women in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Both were discriminated against because they were different than those in power and, according to these people in power, different must mean less intelligent and untrustworthy. The same thing happened to the native tribes in Things Fall Apart. The English encountered people who were not the same as them so, these people must therefore be unintelligent heathens.
Seriously, when will everyone realize that if someone is different, that does not mean they are inferior. This kind of discrimination isn't limited to countries across the world or a time over 200 years ago. People still treat others harshly because they aren't the same, and they don't fit the perfect cookie cutter mold. Just look at high school. The kids that are made fun of the most are the ones who don't wear the same clothes as everyone else, don't fit into the correct pants size, choose to be interested in video games like Final Fantasy, or in some other way do not meet the standards set by the "normal" people. The "normal" people judge these kids for not acting just like them. Sure they might think they're not a mean person so they don't directly make fun of these people. Instead they make remarks to their friends or just keep it to themselves and judge those people silently. I'm sorry to go off on a rant but it is on of those things that really bothers me and A Thousand Splendid Suns brought it up. Overall, people are afraid of what is different and therefore condemn it. So whether it is women in Afghanistan, slaves in America, natives in Africa, or the kid who likes to wear his World of Warcraft shirt to school instead of Hollister, there have always been people who discriminate agaisnt other people because they are different.
