STUDY ON WOMEN IN PERSPECTIVE OF MARXIST FEMINISM AS REFLECTED IN A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS BY KHALEED HOSSEINI

Abstract

The study in this thesis analyses afghan women’s lives and roles which are believed to be tied
up to patriarchal rules in aspect of society and politic. The analysis aims on the images of the
women which likely become determinant of society’s treatments to them. Finding different
images between the women themselves, and different treatments to them by society, the
analysis is led to be conducted by using theory of marxist feminism which gives explanation
of the phenomenon. Applying Eagleton and Milne’s marxist feminism, it is seen that the
women themselves, are actually divided into two different social classes: bourgeois and
proletariat. Having guided by the theory and other similar ones, it is found that not all of
women oppressed and bound by patriarchy. Hence, afghan women’s lives and roles are
apparently different each other depend on social class they belong. While bourgeois women
are immune to any oppression because of being powerful in economy, the proletariat ones are
oppressed by society which is ruled by patriarchal concept.
Keywords: afghan women, patriarchal culture, women class division, marxist feminism