A WOMAN IS NO MAN BY ETAF RUM

" I DID NOT KNOW I WAS MUTE UNTIL YEARS LATER, WHEN I OPENED MY MOUTH TO ASK FOR WHAT I WANTED AND REALISED NO ONE COULD HEAR ME. "

A book that I devoured in recent times. It reminded me of stories I heard from my mother about the lives of women she knew.

Deya, an 18 year old Palestinian Muslim, brought up in the US. She lives with her 3 sisters and her grandparents. She was told her parents died in a car accident when she was a child.

Deya is forced to meet her suitors by her grandmother, Fareeda. She recollects the memory of her mother, Isra who always seemed lonely and unhappy. So she decides that her mother did not have a happy married life and doesn’t want herself to get married in a haste.

She protests her grandparents against her marriage and wants to pursue higher education.

Deya later finds the letters written by Isra which she had never posted and gets to understand her and uncovers what had really happened to her parents.

PROS: A deeply engaging novel on oppression of women, domestic violence, importance of education and freedom of choice.

I liked how the book went back and forth from Isra, Deya and Fareeda.

The book left me speechless and it is so disturbing that there are women who still suffer through this.

CONS: Not any that I could point out.

MY REVIEW: 5/5

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