The Agony And Resilience Of Afghan Women In Yasmina Khedra’s The Swallows Of Kabul And Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Abstract

This article attempts to compare Yasmina Khadra's, The Swallows of Kabul (2002) with Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007). To do so, both Postcolonial Feminism and Trauma theory have been applied in order to explore the female protagonists’ oppression by their male counterparts and the traumatic experiences they endure, starting with loss and violence, to total marginalization and invisibility. This trauma appears on the female characters under different shapes such as nightmares and flashbacks. Ultimately, it concludes that both Yasmina Khedra and Khaled Hosseini aim at denouncing the violence endured by the Afghan women under the Taliban regime which uses religion as a mean to oppress them, and portraying the resilience of women despite all odds. Through a thematic study of the two novels, this article will shed light on the brutality of the environment under which the Afghan women live in a male-dominant society, supported by a strong political fanaticism. That is, women suffer twice: first because they live under the weight of traditional Afghan society, and second because they live in the midst of a strong radical Islamic system. Women become invisible beings , excluded from any social activity and facing all sorts of injustice.