A Thousand Splendid Suns Characters

Mariam – The daughter of a rich man named Jalil and his former housekeeper, Nana who was born out of wedlock. In the beginning of the book, Mariam is a quiet little girl that hates her mother’s overprotectiveness and the fact that she only sees her father once a week. Mariam runs away from home when she is fifteen, causing her mother to kill herself. Mariam then gets married to an abusive man named Rasheed and begins to feel guilty about her mother’s death and angry that she can’t have kids.

Mariam isn’t happy again until she meets Rasheed’s second wife, Laila, and helps take care of Laila’s children.

Laila – The youngest of five siblings who is forced to mature quickly after her older brothers are sent to war. She falls in love with her best friend, Tariq, but Tariq is forced to flee with his parents to Pakistan because of the war. A few days after Tariq runs away, a rocket kills both of her parents and seriously injured her. Rasheed and Mariam nurse her back to health and Laila decides to marry Rasheed so she can give the baby she had with Tariq a father. Laila and Mariam become very close and Laila learns a lot of life lessons from her.

Rasheed – A very abusive man that marries Mariam and Laila a long time after his first wife and son died. He is very abusive towards his two wives and believes that women should be subservient to men. The only thing he really cares about is having a son who he eventually has with Laila. He is much nicer to his son but still abuses Mariam and Laila so much that Mariam kills him in self defense.

Tariq – The boy Laila falls in love with as a teen that is forced to run away to Pakistan to escape the war. As he gets older, Tariq joins a Hashish smuggling operation and is sent to jail. After going to jail, Tariq turns his life around, gets a good job and eventually reconnects with Laila.

Aziza – Laila and Tariq’s daughter that Rasheed thinks is his. When Rasheed’s shop burns down, he forces Laila to put Aziza in an orphanage to save money. Aziza hates living in the orphanage and even begins to develop a stutter. After Rasheed is killed, Aziza lives with Laila and Tariq and has a much better life.

Hakim – Laila’s father who is weaker than most of the men in Kabul. Hakim is picked on a lot by many people, including Rasheed, for being week. His wife even calls him weak for sending their sons off to war. Hakim also has pretty unpopular beliefs in Afghanistan since he believes that women should be equal to men and deserve to be educated.

Jalil – Mariam’s father. He was a wealthy businessman until the communists took over Afghanistan and confiscated a lot of land. He also is greatly impacted by the war since one of his wives and many of his children die as a result of it.

Mammy – Laila’s mother and Hakim’s wife who cares a lot about others, especially her family. After two of her sons are killed in the war, and she begins to take her anger out on Hakim and becomes distant from Laila. It isn’t until Laila almost dies that she begins to care strongly for her again and considers leaving Afghanistan to save her family.

Mullah Faizullah – Mariam’s biggest role model as a kid. He teaches her a lot about the Muslim faith and even convinces Mariam to try to get a real education, much to her mother’s dismay.

Nana – Mariam’s mother and Jalil’s wife who raises Mariam by herself. Unlike Jalil, she comes from a very poor family and had a hard life growing up. She wasn’t able to get a good education and also has a medical condition that she calls “”a jinn””.

Zalmai – Laila and Rasheed’s son. Zalmai is the only person that Rasheed truly cares about and this causes him to care about Rasheed greatly. He is the only one who is upset when Rasheed dies because he doesn’t realize how horribly Rasheed treated the rest of his family. He later builds a strong relationship with Tariq.

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