Women being Subjugated or Fighting to Break the Shackle of Patriarchy?

A Comparative Study of Zahir Raihan’s হাজার বছর ধরর (Hajar Bachor Dhore) and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Abstract

Despite the diversity of time, place, and culture, both the patriarchal society described in Zahir Raihan’s হাজার বছর ধরর (Hajar Bachor Dhore) and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns first tries to diminish, then moulds the individual identity of a woman according to its own preference; and finally subject them to extreme oppression. As world literature gives meaning to the vision of universality, comparing these two novels brings to light the legacy of women's pain and suffering under this manifestation of patriarchy. Though these women from Raihan and Hosseini's narratives are prominently similar, they are singularly different in their response to this patriarchal d dominance. Thus, through a feminist approach, this study argues that while Raihan’s women characters are bound to patriarchal laws, Hosseini’s women characters offer an attempt to subvert the power of patriarchy and fight for freedom