A Thousand Splendid Suns

When Rasheed learns of Laila’s pregnancy, he heads straight to the mosque to pray for a son. Laila, meanwhile, remembers gossip she learned at one of her mother’s parties: that Rasheed was “crying drunk” at the time of his son’s drowning, and that the boy died because of his inebriated father’s neglect (222).

Rasheed announces Laila’s pregnancy to Mariam with “cheerful cruelty,” which only serves to make her more hostile to Laila (222). As the only one who leaves the house, Rasheed brings home news of the ongoing war and guerrilla fighting.

Rasheed takes Laila to his shoe shop one day. She finds the burqa terribly restrictive, though she welcomes the anonymity it provides. When Rasheed makes the comment that Laila is “‘swelling so quickly,’” and imagines that he will be the father of a big boy, she becomes nervous, lest her secret is discovered (226).

When Rasheed asks Laila how things are going with Mariam, she lies and says that everything is fine. However, they have had their first major fight,which begins with a misplaced spoon and escalates to a shouted exchange of insults.

Laila goes into labor and has a baby girl. She names her Aziza, or “cherished one.” Rasheed is not happy with the situation and blames this miniature “warlord” for taking Laila’s affection away from him (231). While Mariam is still wary of Laila, she almost admires Laila’s constant ministrations over her daughter and almost pities her when she falls short, in Rasheed’s estimation.

Rasheed however, blames Mariam for Laila denying him sexually. When he threatens to beat her with his belt, Laila lunges at Rasheed and begs him to stop.

At night, unable to sleep, Mariam goes downstairs, where Aziza is still awake. She bonds deeply with the baby.

Laila, who adores Aziza, whispers to her about Tariq, whomthe child resembles, but never mentions him by name. Rasheed looks at Aziza suspiciously and interrogates Laila about her relationship with Tariq. Laila insists that he was more like a brother or friend to her. Rasheed taunts her, saying that “‘people gossiped […] said all sorts of things about you two’” (240).

Laila has also kept another secret from Rasheed: she has been stealing from him weekly, saving money to escape to Peshawar. The next morning, Laila finds baby clothes for a girl outside her door. The clothes are a gift from Mariam, who sewed them a long time ago, during one of her failed pregnancies. Mariam expresses her gratitude for Laila’s standing up for her when Rasheed was about to beat her. “‘Nobody’s ever stood up for me before,’” Mariam admits (243).

The two women transgress from their routine chores to take chai in the yard.When Aziza wakes up, “an unguarded knowing look” passes between Laila and Mariam, and the former knows “they were not enemies any longer” (244). 

There is a new routine in the house as Mariam and Laila do their chores together. Mariam is moved by how much Aziza takes to her, as she represents “the first true connection in her life of false, failed connections” (246).

In January 1994, when the fighting deepens and the streets become littered with bodies, militiamen use rape to reward themselves and honor killings are performed on raped wives and daughters. As Mariam and Laila grow closer, Mariam tells Laila about all that she has endured in the past. Laila says that she has something to confess as well.

Laila informs Mariam that in the spring, she and Aziza are leaving and that Mariam should come with them. For Mariam, the presence of Laila and Aziza in her life is transformational: they are “two new flowers” of hope in her life of myriad disappointments (250). In the distance, she can hear Mullah Faizullah saying that it is God’s will that she tends to the two of them.