Author(s): Dr. Sanjay

Abstract: Actually, Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ (2007) has frequently been read as a narrative of female suffering within war-torn Afghanistan. While such interpretations foreground the novel’s depiction of systemic oppression, they often understate the complexity of agency embedded in its narrative structure. This paper argues that Hosseini reconfigures female agency as a gradual, relational, and ethically grounded process rather than an overt act of resistance. Through a close reading of Mariam and Laila’s evolving relationship, the study demonstrates how domestic space becomes a contested site where power is both enforced and subverted. Drawing on postcolonial feminist thought, the analysis highlights how resilience operates not as passive endurance but as a form of narrative and moral agency. Ultimately, the novel challenges reductive representations of Afghan women by presenting resistance as embedded within care, sacrifice, and interdependence.

Keywords: Afghan fiction, feminist literary criticism, postcolonial studies, narrative ethics, gendered agency.

Article Info: Received: 21 Feb 2026; Received in revised form: 23 Mar 2026; Accepted: 28 Mar 2026; Available online: 02 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.44