A book review by Raashida Khan: Saffron: A Collection of Personal Narratives written by Muslim women
How does one do justice in a book review of >500 words, to a collection of writing that is beautiful, insightful, heart-breaking, heart-warming, fun, quirky, challenging and inspiring?
Saffron: A Collection of Personal Narratives by Muslim Women, edited by Dr Zaheera Jina is such a book. The stories are real, as are the characters – we are able to identify with the voices of the writers and the people they describe. Readers are invited to take glimpse into the lives of these women, understand and learn from them. What strength and courage each has displayed by opening up their minds and hearts to allow us in, even for a brief moment. I am awed by your honesty and bravery. I salute you all!
The theme is relationships, specifically the relationship of marriage as the book is intended as marriage guidance for young women. However, the stories are written by all women – married, single, divorced, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters and aunts – by us all; for us all. Any person: young or old, male or female, married or single, Muslim or not would be able to see a reflection of him/herself in the threads of the stories. Anyone can identify because much as we are each unique, with our own paths to follow, the narratives bring home a resounding truth – that we are all connected. The experience of living with and relating to one another is what makes us human. No one can live in isolation – we need each other. That is the message in the first story in the first section: Lived Realities and is a theme that echoes in the sections that follow: Food and Marriage, Hardship and Conflict, Dealing with In-laws, Intimacy, Baby-making and Children, and Self-Esteem.
What is clear is that all the writers advocate one idea, in their individual ways: our two most important relationships should be that with our creator and that with ourselves. While we are encouraged to work at our spousal-, family- and in-law-relationships, we should never sacrifice ourselves and our identities for any one, or any relationship.
The other realisation that was brought home to me is that none of us have everything figured out. We are all on this journey of life, armed with best intentions, guidance and our own intuition. There is no one rule book that will work for every one, and we have to find our way. To do this, we need to allow ourselves to make mistakes.
Life is a journey – sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy and thankfully never boring. Saffron reminds us to enjoy the ride.
well encapsulated review.
it says it all.
it will be a difficult book to put down.
thank you.
slms
Couldn’t have said it better Raashida!
Thanks for sharing.