Women and Sexism.

        "What’s the sense in schooling a girl like you? It’s like shining a spittoon. There is only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life... tahamul. Endure.”  Mariam later understands her mother's brutally honest words and what it means to "tahamul" as she is constantly belittled, persecuted, and declared illegitimate due to her gender. Khaled Hosseini in his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, accurately portrays many of the inequities women in Afghanistan faced during the 1960s- early 2000s. Women were not considered equal to men, they were expected to comply to whatever men wanted. They were sub-par. A few examples I discovered include Mariam's forced arranged marriage, Rasheen's requirement for Mariam and Laila to wear a burqa because "a woman's face is only for her husband" yet Rasheen has a magazine of barely clothed women in his dresser, Laila and Mariam being forced to be housewives and being unable to financially support themselves, the spousal abuse that Laila and Mariam endure, Laila and Mariam not being able to ride the bus because they didn't have a man with them, the fact that the only hospital where women are allowed (when Laila needed help delivering Zalmai), was completely ill-equipped, and the contrast between Rasheen's disgust for "his" daughter and his pride in his son. Sexism, especially towards women, is prevalent throughout the entire novel. 
       While it's not even close to being comparable to the extreme sexism that existed and still exists in Afghanistan, there is also sexism within the United States. I have yet to meet a woman who hasn't been bothered in the street, one of the key examples of casual sexism. How many times have you been walking along, minding your own business, before being shouted at a man in a passing car, or bothered by some builders on the side of the road? It can be anything from a horn being tooted at you, to shouting things that are distinctly more unsavory. How about school aged girls being sent to the office because their clothing is too "distracting for the boys." I completely understand the necessity for a dress code, but telling girls that the reason for the dress code is so that you aren't distracting the opposite gender from learning, is insane. If a boy is too distracted to do his work because he can see my shoulder, he's got bigger problems. This is sexism. I'm not saying men don't face legitimate sexism, they do. For example, if a man and a woman comit the same crime, it is proven that the man will most often recieve a harsher punishment. Also, if the man and woman committed the crime together, the man is often charged as the "initiator." Another example is in divorce cases, the courts mainly side with the mother in custody battles over children. Male sexism is real as well, it's just not as prevalent or as advertised as sexism against females.
       Yes, women in America can now vote, work outside of the home, own property, and do many things that women in other countries cannot do but it doesn't mean sexism is gone in America. It's definitely still here and women should continue to fight for equal rights.
"A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is given. A woman is human." - Vera Nazarian.