Laila is a victim of circumstance when she becomes pregnant with Tariq's child and loses her parents to a bombing in Kabul. Yet, she may be considered a master of her destiny by some of the brave choices she makes under her harrowing circumstances. For instance, to avoid living on the street, Laila chooses to stay with Rasheed and Mariam after the bombing of her home and the death of her parents. She also decides to become Rasheed's second wife after being duped into believing that Tariq (her lover) is dead.

Before the Taliban regime, women were limited by their circumstances in Afghanistan where they had little to no rights. Women were not allowed to travel unaccompanied by a male. Still, both Laila and Mariam risk trying to leave their abuser and husband, Rasheed. However, they have little control over being denounced to the police for attempting to buy bus tickets without a valid male escort. Neither can they do anything to defend themselves from Rasheed's beatings and incarceration after they are returned home to face the dire consequences of their actions. The police are said not to interfere in “private matters.”

Under Taliban rule, women's rights become even more restrictive: girls are denied an education, the female gender has no right to speak in public unless spoken to first, they cannot work, and the list goes on. There are also fewer considerations for women's healthcare, a fact which is evident when Laila discovers the hospitals have been separated by gender and she must walk a long distance to find a hospital serving women only. In this hospital, and without any privacy, she gives birth in a room full of other women who are also in labor. Exasperated by the walk and the poor conditions of the women's hospital, Laila decides to have her c-section performed without a drop of anesthesia rather than wait for Mariam to purchase some for her.

In all of these circumstances, the reader finds Laila to be a victim, much like Mariam and other women living in this society. Still, Laila tries to master her destiny by defying the conditions imposed on her by both husband and country. Toward the end of the book, we read about Laila's struggle to visit her daughter (Aziza) at the orphanage, in spite of the Talibs' repeated beatings and questionings because she is unaccompanied. She continues to try in spite of Rasheed refusing to walk with her. She wears layers of padding to soften the blows and whippings she would usually encounter from the Talibs.

When Laila learns of Tariq being alive, she jeopardizes her safety once again to visit with him and almost loses her life. When Rasheed finds out that Laila let Tariq into his home, a fight ensues in which Laila takes a piece of glass to Rasheed's face, and Rasheed almost strangles the life out of her. In the end, Mariam is the one to kill Rasheed with a shovel. Mariam convinces Laila to leave with Tariq and her kids, leaving her behind, so that the Taliban will not come after all of them. Laila weeps at this decision but takes the opportunity to flee and run away with Tariq and her children.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Laila is both a victim of circumstance and a master of her own detiny because she falls into situations that she cannot control and she asserts her own agency in the situations that she thinks she might be able to control. For example, when the bomb hits her home and she loses both her parents, Laila becomes the victim of circumstance. She was the one who should have been inside the home, but fate acted in other ways and placed her outside when the bomb hit.  Now she is alone, and being a woman alone in Afghanistan at the time is unsafe.  When Laila becomes conscious again and realizes that Rasheed has taken her into his home, Laila masters her own destiny by accepting his marriage proposal.  Laila knows that she will be safer as part of this family than she will be alone on the street.  From here, Laila is able to master her own destiny and take advantage of the situations to come.