Protection and Possession

   The Socratic Seminar question number ten for A Thousand Splendid Suns asks what the difference between protection and possession is. The characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns perform both of these actions. Rasheed and Jalil perform acts of possession while Babi and Tariq perform acts of protection.
   The difference between these two actions is what their motives are. Possessive protection is a selfish act. A person possesses something or someone for their own pleasure. They may appear to be performing protection, but in reality that person is looking out for their own interests. If their possession is harmed or destroyed, they cannot have it any more or get pleasure from it anymore. The person has a possession for their own personal interests. For example, a person owns a car and protects it. But why do they do that? They do it because it cost a lot of money, it is hard to replace, and/or it makes them have a better social status. All of these reasons for protection are for the person's best interest, not the car's. 
   Protection is done under possession, but it can have entirely different motives. If the protection is done because of possession, it is selfish. But if the protection is done because of an act of love, that is a different story. Selfless protection is done for the object, not the subject. Instead of protecting for their own interests, a person protects for the object's interests. This is different from possessive protection. 
   Rasheed is possessive over his wives Laila and Mariam. He says that he will shoot anyone from the street who tries to harm them, but the reason he would do it is not for their safety, but because he will loose a potential child and not look as good in his community. This is a selfish motive. Tariq is the opposite. He wants wants what is best for Laila for her own sake, not his own. When some of the neighborhood boys pick on her, he beats them up to defend her and get them to stop. After Laila is married and he is visiting her, he asks her if he should leave forever so that Rasheed wouldn't harm her (I finished the book). He asks her this to protect her. If he was possessive, he would not have asked her this because naturally he wanted to stay with her. But he selflessly offers to leave her if that would keep her safe. That is a great act of selfless protection.
   Our society still gets these two words mixed up. I am sure that husbands today still think that they are protecting their wives and children but they are only doing it for their own interests, which are keeping their possessions safe. But there are good husbands too who would sacrifice everything for their loved ones for their sakes, not his own. The same goes for anyone, women and children alike. I am just referencing husbands because of how they are seen as the leader of the home and the guardian.