"On Pakistani Women Finding Their Way...through an innate sense of universal recognition,we understand their emotions - silent yearnings about love, being heard, their perceived role as women and wanting more. "
Beyond The Cayenne Wall Book Review
By Dawn G. Prince
B
eyond The Cayenne Wall is Shaila Abdullah's richly woven collection of 7 stories about Pakistani women and their struggles for individuality in Pakistani society. Among other notable awards, Abdullah's book, which won the Jury Prize for Outstanding Fiction in the 2005 Norumbega Fiction Awards gives Pakistani women a voice of surprising strength and passion - a far cry from the stereotypical subservient view most of us in the West get of South Asian women.
With strong, defiant characters who, despite the confines placed upon them by society regarding love, marriage and their role as women, try to break free because they know there is more beyond the walls that limit their freedom of expression and self. And it's what outside of these walls that bring conflict with tradition and expectations as the women struggle with their emotions. As a Pakistani from Karachi, the author understands this clash with tradition and what is outside of the perimeter's of one's own culture as she's been in the United States for eleven years and she' gotten a glimpse of both worlds.
"I write from a hybrid viewpoint. You will see a glimpse of it in the character of Mansi in “Forever Dusk”, who tried to forget the world she grew up in but upon going back to her roots, realized that the loving grip of her past was rich with history and something she should treasure. Or in the account of Minnah who came to U.S. for a brighter future and ended up having an affair with an older married man and realized that she has gone against the very principles she had set for herself in life."
Abdullah gives us a cross section of all levels of Pakistani society - rich, poor, educated and illiterate. She also delves into subjects of the everyday such as love, marriage, mother-in-laws, adoption and infidelity. We get women like the affluent Pakistani-American Nyssa, in “The arrangement”, who fears having her adopted daughter taken away by her biological mother, or we meet economically-poor, defiant Tanu who, despite the culutural expectation, refuses to give up her first born to the temple of Shah Daullah, or
Dhool, a fiesty woman who must confront the past mistakes in her life. And like Tanu whose mother-in-law is impatient for her to produce a child, well-to-do Ayesha faces the same problem.
Despite their backgrounds, privileged or not, what these women have in common is their desire to overcome their situations and that makes them not so different from one another, or the rest of us for that matter. Although we, in the west, may not be able to relate to the situations of arranged marriages and the role of women in the home and society at large, through an innate sense of universal recognition, we understand their emotions - silent yearnings about love, being heard, their perceived role as women and wanting more, and we can appreciate the passion and spirit with which they try to overcome their situations.
Through Abdullah's rich tapestry of stories, we get the sense of the shifting landscape for Pakistani women who are coming into their own. While trying to honor and hold onto the traditions of their rich culture and breathtakingly beautiful land, we see the inner conflicts and the slowly bubbling voices that threaten to burst from within.
One thing that comes to mind throughout the stories is that although a society can impose certain rules governing women's roles and what's expected of them, they have no control over thoughts and feelings, which can rise up despite being told that things should be done a certain way. And that is where the women are triumphant - with their feelings and thoughts of passion and love that go against what's expected of them. Although not always successful - in their own way - they are triumphant simply because they find their voices - which makes it clear that true liberation for Pakistani women has to start from inside each woman.
Read an Interview with the author, Shaila Abdullah!
More information about the author and her work is available at www.shailaabdullah.com.
Copyright ©2006 Sure Woman.com/Copyright ©2006 Dawn Prince
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