A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

demurely

Cutsey, demure

As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she’d said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.

Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.

Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.

Though there had been moments of beauty in it, Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it.

You can be anything you want, Laila, he says. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you.