Entry 3, pages 250-275

When reading this novel, how are you reminded of your own human rights as a citizen of the United States?  Do you feel you deserve those human rights?  How are they protected?

In the United States, I am granted and exercise rights everyday that I don't even think about.  I can say what is on my mind, or own property, or not be discriminated against because of the way I look or where I am from.  Laila can't even leave her home by herself to go get groceries because she is a woman.  This law set by the Taliban violates two Articles of the List of Human Rights.
Article 2 protects the Freedom from Discrimination, meaning Laila should have the same rights as every man, because everyone is entitled to the same rights.  Laila travels to visit her daughter, Aziza, at an orphanage but is often caught and sent home for not being with a man, but not before she is "given a tongue-lashing or a single kick to the rear, a shove in the back,  Other times, she met with assortments of wooden clubs, fresh tree branches, short whips, slaps, often fists" (Hosseini 321).  If I were to leave my house, no one would stop me and punish me for being alone because I am protected by the List of Human Rights that everyone is supposed to be entitled to.  Exercising my rights is something I don't think about, I just do, however people in other countries have to think about every move they make and are not protected the way I am where I live.
Article 13 allows for the Right to Free Movement, which the Taliban interferes with when they chain women to their homes and also when Laila and Mariam cannot travel without a male family member.  After being caught at a train station trying to escape from Rasheed, Mariam and Laila are interrogated by officers.  "'We know,' he began, clearing his throat and politely covering his mouth with a fist, 'that you have already told one lie today hamshira.  The young man at the station was not your cousin.  He told us as much himself.  The question is whether you will tell more lies today.  Personally, I advise you against it'" (264).  When in Madison, I have taken a bus or taxi without my dad or brother by me, and so the Taliban setting a law against women traveling alone should not be allowed.  Women, men, senior citizens all are given the right at birth to travel where they want and when they want.
Not only do I deserve to have Human Rights, but so does everyone else in the world.  Human Rights apply to everyone when they are born, however they cannot be enforced because there is no "Government of the World".  That is why today, almost every single Human Right on the list is violated somewhere.  The fact that Laila can't take a walk without being questioned and beaten is insane and upsetting.  If men are allowed outside, it is expected that any woman can do the same.