Female Body As A Salable Commodity: The Psychological Dilemmas Of Women Protagonists In And The Mountains Echoed

Abstract

In the post-colonial fiction of Khaled Hosseini female body has been used as a salable commodity in the traditional patriarchal society of Afghanistan. Women are sexually oppressed as men are considered superiors to women. The novels of Khaled Hosseini depict the plight of women who are subjected to the terror of male domination. In each of his novels; The Kite Runner and Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini describes the sufferings of women who are treated as the “Other†.Hosseini’s latest novel And the Mountains Echoed describes the endless sufferings of women who are trapped in the power structure of men and are always treated as objects of sexual pleasures and not individuals.  The Afghan society is patriarchal, repressive, oppressive giving privileges to men and its harsh treatment of women, justified in the name of cultural traditions and religion. In this society men are born with respect, dignity and worth whereas women are considered as salable commodities. Men are considered as individuals and women are thought of as bodies. Therefore, in her life a woman’s body is subjected to scrutiny, at home by the father and brother, and outside by strangers.