After reading A Saudi Princess, Kite Runner, and Not Without My Daughter, I really should not be shocked by this book.
To think that females are chattels, to be brought up first for the free labor they give and then to be sold away to the highest bidders; I am extremely grateful that I was not born in that segment of population. The first wife of the book seller, Sharifah, at least married somebody her own age. There went twenty over happy years when the book seller decided that a man his stature should have a teenage second wife. Imagine the hurt and the humiliation when a person is declared too old and was replaced! I suppose it then made sense to marry an empty headed uneducated young girl, Sonya. After all, it is her youthfulness and young body that Sultan Khan was after.
In comparison, the Muslim women in my country are much luckier. Here education is free for both male and female. In fact, more female enter universities than male yearly. With a good education, women are highly employable. With many women working full time, that was why hundreds and thousands of maids were brought into the country to keep the hearth fire burning.
At least both Sharifah and Sonya are married and have their rightful places in their husband's house. It is Leila that is really pitiful. Since her father passed away, she lived with her uncle and served as an unpaid maid. When Sharifah and Sonya united to chased away the husband's sister and family, Leila and her family moved to another uncle's house. There Leila would serve a smaller family. There would be less money and less food available. She still had no hope for a better future. At the blink of an eye, her mother and uncle could sell her into a marriage that would enslave her for life. If her future husband has no earning power, she might end up serving thirty over members of an extended family.
In comparison, dogs and cats are better treated in many parts of the world.
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