Book Review: Women, Dreaming

 

Women Dreaming by Salma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Women,Wailing is a more apt title of the book. The unceasing weeping, crying, caterwauling of a girl and her mother, aunt and grandmothers is the consequence of her father discovering the Wahabism brand of radical Islam after his sojourn in Saudi Arabia. Using sharia as his tool, he sets out to terrorize his immediate family, neighbours and his village.
Maybe the essence is lost in translation but it is a bit tedious reading at times. Yet the narrative does throw up some devastating insights. Most poignant was the conceptualizing of colours and shapes by an old woman blind from birth. The hypocrisy of muslim men justifying polygamy for themselves while covering up their women, denying proper education for girls, labelling TV, films, cosmetics etc evil is gut-wrenching.
Women do not dream in this book – they are just buffeted about by societal pressures.

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