KAMA PRANA
Womens’ Studies Book Club
Middle East, North Africa,
Central & South Asia, and India Focus:
Novels written by women, about women.
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
“…three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community.”
—HARPER
(Trigger warning: domestic abuse)
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
“Trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own... Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist-and confidante-most in demand to women of the upper class...” —HarperCollins
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Sequel: The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
Book #2 in the Jaipur Trilogy Series.
Set 12 years after The Henna Artist… a tale rich in character, atmosphere, intrigue and lavish storytelling. — HarperCollins
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Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
(Trigger warning: a real description of India street life)
“After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonald decided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with a passion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted she would come back one day - and for love - she vowed never to return. But twelve years later the prophecy comes true…”
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The Storyteller’s Daughter by Saira Shah
As a child growing up in England, Saira Shah was enchanted by the Afghanistan vividly conjured up by her father, the scion of an aristocratic Afghan family and a masterful storyteller. Years later, she discovered another Afghanistan as a journalist and filmmaker covering the bloody years of Soviet occupation and the oppressive Taliban regime…”
(Trigger warning: descriptions of Afghanistan war zone)
YouTube Playlisr: Pashtun Afghani “Attan” dance
In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A Ahmed, MD
“Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong.”
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The Woman who Fell from the Sky by Jennifer Steil
“Eager for adventure, Jennifer Steil left Manhattan to train young journalists in Yemen, a country where writing about taboo subjects could cost you your life. But, along the way, she makes friends with people whose traditions could not be more different from her own, and often learns much more than she could ever teach.”
The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb
“Award-winning journalist Christina Lamb chronicles the human stories behind the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Lamb spent the last phase of the Soviet War in Pakistan, relying on her friendship with exiled Afghans to smuggle her in and out of Jalalabad. Many of these friends are now the Taliban, giving her exclusive and critical insight into the brutalization of this tragic, war-ravaged land.”
(Trigger warning: graphic descriptions of human torture)
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