Imam's Daughter - A Pakistani's Review About the Book
The following blog contains a lot of spoilers from Hannah Shah's novel 'The Imam's Daughter' so please only read this if you don't plan to read the novel, or have read the novel.
Warning: The following blog is a total and utter waste of time and space. Why? For it will never reach the audience that needs to be addressed. Why did I bother writing it? Because I hope it somehow does.
I am Zara and I am 19 years old. I was born and brought up in Pakistan and about three years ago, I moved to England. From the childhood stories I have heard from my elders, my ancestors were quite well off. I never quite understood the social slash wealth statuses of a society as a child, but I remember how my mother often told me we were just an average middle class family. And so we were. Whatever you read in this blog are not experiences of some high society rich snob, but rather of a girl from a middle class family. And that in itself means, that I share the following experiences with a large proportion of the country. Or precisely, the urban population. According to national statistics, nearly 40% of the country's population is urbanized.
I was born and bred in Islamabad, the capital of the country. My grandfather was pretty much one of the first settlers in the city. He had a posting done due to his status as a defence official, from Karachi. He built his abode in what is now best known as F-8.
My Easter break was meant to be all about studies since my finals are barely a month away, yet I ended up getting my hands on Hannah Shah's 'Imam's daughter'. I intended to stay away from novels altogether till after my finals, but as soon as I read the blurb, I knew I HAD to read it. And thus began the emotional journey as I downloaded a copy of the novel onto my iTouch and started right away in the middle of the night. Who is Hannah? Hannah is Hannan Shah, a girl who was born to a muslim parents with Pakistani heritage. So what do I share with her so far? Hannan was born a muslim, so was I. Her parents were of Pakistani heritage, so are mine. But Hannan's life was very different from mine. She grew up in UK - yes, we would automatically presume she must have a lavish life then - but she didn't. She was born to an Imam. A man who called himself an Imam but his association itself to Islam is perhaps the most disturbing and disgusting thing. He had no concept of gender equality, something Islam quite emphasizes on, he treated his wife and daughters as slaves. He found it insulting to sit and eat with his wife or daughters during dinner time, they had to serve him and his sons and only eat after they left the room. The women of the house had to look after pretty much everything, from dishes to men's laundry and what not. He never showed any affection whatsoever at all ever to Hannan's mother or to Hannan, he believe they were slaves and were born to work for men. He would beat the women if the chappati wasn't cooked like he wanted or if there was anything out of place during dinner. He didn't believe in women needing education at all, he considered them too stupid for that. Even though Hannan attended school, he never appreciated her efforts. How does that make her father different from mine? We lived in Pakistan, if things work like our society thinks, then theoretically he should be a lot less open-minded than somebody living in Britain. Except that, such is not the case. My father is a feminist, like every other educated man in the country, he believes in gender equality. I have a brother a few years younger than me, to date, my father has never ever differentiated how my brother and I am suppose to live, due to our gender. He believes very strongly in education. He cannot stand the thought altogether of anybody wishing to drop out after high school, he believes educating yourself to the fullest is the best way to live. He is a doctor. So is my mother. Mum believes that women should go to ATLEAST university. Some might question why? She says even those who plan to get married and never work should get that kind of education because how she grooms her kids (which is probably why she wants to stay home and not work in the first place) is highly reflected by how much educated she herself is. My dad and I couldn't agree more. There is a lot of difference between my thinking and attitude and that of my friends whose mothers never studied past the 10th grade. At 19, I don't have to worry about a thing really, if I ever dared mentioned marriage to my parents, it would be a very awkward moment. I can almost think up my parents' reaction, they would think I have gone crazy and would tell me to just focus on my studies and not think of any such thing for at least 6 years or so. Why? Because getting married at such an age might be lovely and fun and what not, but it is stupid. I know for sure, I'm not mature enough to get married and start a family. Which is what my friend's parents might have in mind for their 19 year old. They start telling him/her, they need to get married asap. What is the issue here? It is not religion, no where in Quran does it say 'ship your kids off to their husbands/wives as soon as they turn 18', it is the fact that their parents are just not educated and don't think about consequences of such a marriage.
Hannan's father decided when she turned 5, that the best way to punish her for her doings (like when she wouldn't get her Quran's pronunciation wrong) was to rape her. Shocking as this may sound - that's what she had to bear since she turned 5. To be very honest, such abuse and cruelty was even possible was not known to me till I read the book. She was repeatedly raped months after months till she turned 16, that is when she escaped her family by running away. Her mother never, for once, despite knowing everything that happened, ever stopped her father. She pretended like she didn't care or knew nothing for she feared if she defended her daughter, her husband would hit her instead. Her other siblings were no different, turned their backs on her and ignored all such cruelty.
Hannan could read Quran very well, for she had been trained with sticks and stones to get the pronunciation just about perfect. But like many of us, she never understood the meaning behind the Arabic words she read. Fortunately for us, we come from families who teach us Islam as it is - free and open. But she never saw that side, she was raped and told this is how God wants to punish her. Her parents all her life kept her imprisoned and used the most cruel of ways to punish her, telling her each time that this was because she was filthy and disgusting and god doesn't want her. They told her she will go to hell. She was left to believe that her parent's god will throw her in hell for getting the food wrong. She was left to believe that her father would go to heaven despite his sexual desires and abuse on her. Many of you would question, why would any sane person believe that? Well because she was told this repeatedly every single day of her life since she was 5 years old. When somebody tells you something all the time, you start believing them. Especially since nobody around you has ever said anything to oppose it. As she grew up, she grew further from religion. Why? Because her father didn't know his religion at all, the father who called himself an imam. He declared going out, working for women, socialising, music, talking to a white person, dressing like a white, helping any person who isn't white, all haram. She spent all her life doing chores and being abused. For everything besides that was haram. Such a religion would throw us all away. She wasn't allowed to read the meaning of Quran for her dad said that it is a dishonour to read Quran in any other language besides its original scripture. For that reason and many other, she never connected to her religion. She was born a rebel, and tried everything she could to resist things around her. At the age of 16, she overheard her dad confirming her plans of an arranged marriage with her cousin back in Pakistan. She realized her father was planning to ship them all back to Pakistan within the next two days. And this is when she broke apart, she ran away. Her RE teacher who had for long helped her, took her into her house and gave her shelter. This is when she started learning about other religion, especially about Christianity. She soon decided that was the religion for her and she converted. The story goes on about her life after that. Her father found out and he and her brothers have ever since been looking for her to kill her. Not only had she brought 'shame' to her family by running away but she had also converted. Hannah also married for love and is probably very happy now, that is when she isn't worried about her father finding out where she is located and killing her.
From all this, you must have registered the fact that I have a soft corner for her. Why wouldn't I? After all she was a girl the same colour as me, of the same parental heritage and once the same religion. In a way, along the course of the novel, not only did I feel sorry for her but I also felt guilt. I felt like I had to apologize to her for all that happened to her under the name of my religion. YET, there is another side to it. I know nobody can ever give justice to all that she went through as a child. And I sincerely hope that God rewards her for all her patience at the end of the days. But it made me really sad, especially since she claims to have attained a degree in RE, that even today when she wrote the normal, she barely knew anything about Islam at all. She did understand some bits later on when she wrote the novel like wearing the veil is not compulsory but an option and some bits like that. But she seemed to be still strongly against the religion. I was hoping, a girl like her who seemed to have been so open-minded despite her surroundings, would at least the effort to understand the religion she had been born with once she was freed, even after she converted. I certainly think she should have made that effort before writing the novel. For several bits left me baffled.
Here's a quote;
'Hannan, I know I shouldn't be saying because you are a muslim girl - but your god loves you.'
This seems to imply that in Islam, saying God loves his female-creation is a sin. Err no, I know for sure my God loves me. And I know for sure, rape in any case results in hell not heaven. I also know that compulsion towards religions or hate against other people is strictly forbidden in Islam. I do certainly understand that Islam is about understanding the Quran, not reading it. I call myself a practising muslim, even if very liberal, I strongly believe that nobody can judge how much of a muslim I am by my dressing or my cover really, because I know deep down my beliefs are stronger than those commenting on my characters and so on. And Islam is about belief. I won't go to hell for not wearing a scarf, or for wearing western clothes, I would probably go to hell for raping or causing nearly murders with my hate-speech against people of different community and religions. There were also bits were she tried to imply that Islam does to an extent agree with women being the honor and having less status than the men. You are sadly, very much mistaken Hannah. For those of you who don't know the history. Before Islam came into being, women were sex slaves, they were bought and sold, they were killed when they were born. They did not even hold the human status back in those times. When Islam came, it gave women a lot of freedom. It strictly says that women and men are made alike, and neither is superior to either. Eve was not made out of Adam's head to be higher than her, neither was she made out his feet to be beneath him, she was created from his chest to stand by him and be his equal. Before Islam, there was no concept of women divorcing their husbands. Islam was the first religion to give women freedom of divorcing their husbands. This is one of the many examples where women are given such high importance in the religion.
She was also highly mistaken when she commented on how daughters weren't preferred. This pissed me off a little, I really wish she knew the religion at least a little! Their is so much about daughters in Quran, how special they are, and how they are parent's path to heaven. There are unlimited stories from our Prophet (PBUH)'s life about how much he loved his daughters and how special they were to him. Another failure was when she talked about how disabled children were a sign of punishment from God. Good lord woman! Do some research. Disabled children are said to be the light and path to heaven, parents who end up with disabled children spend their lives looking after them and they are sure to end up in heaven along with their disabled child. Islam is a free religion, what people do with it and how they interpret it is what the problem really is. I really hope Hannah gets to know the religion better during her lifetime. For all that she has suffered, God must have a place for her secured in heaven, I'm sure.
Another thing that made me really sad was how she portrayed Pakistanis in general. I know the community she belonged to was just beyond awful; not just her community, but several in Britain. What is wrong with them? The fact that most of these communities are made up of Pakistanis who immigrated several decades ago when Pakistan was barely born. Most of them belonged to extremely rural areas and leapt at the opportunity to move abroad which was always seen as a big deal back in the days (still today in some parts, UNFORTUNATELY!). Immigrated families from such areas were already known to be very narrow-minded, with the village thinking. The fact that they weren't educated at all, men and women alike, didn't help the case. And so today, what we see is communities in Britain made of several such families. They never got educated. They moved to Britain but refused to accept their culture as it was far beyond their acceptance line. Wonder why? Even today, families from rural Pakistan find it very hard to accept how people dress in the urban parts of the country. Moving to Britain altogether is definitely a cultural shock to them. And so they decided to lock out the British culture altogether, they live in Britain but despise the British. Why? No reason really, they don't even know the British well enough to find a reason to hate them. The problem here is that, since they moved to Britain decades ago, they have since then missed out all the massive amount of progressive changes in Pakistan. They have missed out on how people have become a lot more open-minded and progress towards freedom of speech and lives. Instead they have locked themselves up in Victorian houses, regressing mentally. How can I say all this? Because I live in Britain and I know the way communities work here makes me and my parents frown. They are incredibly strict and the way they talk is beyond horrible. Not only the women but the men gossip about other families like they did back in the day in villages. Or how today, your maids in Pakistan gossip about your neighbors. My parents have tried to distance themselves as much as they can from the Pakistani community here which is largely made up of immigrants of old times and indulged more with British. And for all these reasons, I know what Hannah went through with her community. But that does not justify how she kept posing this image very generally as if all that happened to her was all that happened throughout Pakistan. Because I assure you, that is certainly NOT the case. I belong to Pakistan and I have never ever heard of such a case before today. Yes, living in Pakistan all my life, I DID read the news and knew all that happened in my country so to suggest I don't know my country is rather stupid. My point is Hannah what happened to you is beyond horrible and nobody can make it right but your novel went out to millions of people and it affected largely what they thought of Pakistan and Islam. Even though you knew what your father and your family did to you was not how Pakistan or Islam was, you let your novel portray that and that made me very sad. The fact that you talked negatively of such things instead of actually doing some research and telling about how these problems DO exist but are rarely heard of and it is certainly not how Pakistan itself is, made me think you did inherit a gene or two from your father after all. Not educating yourself enough, yet talking about it like you knew everything.
Hannah brought up the issue of forced marriages in her novel which I thought was brilliant. It is an issue that most of us ignore because they don't affect us but unfortunately it does affect some of the lower uneducated class of not just our country but our neighboring countries like India and Afghanistan as well. There is a lot of difference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage. Even though I know Hannah implied that love marriages aren't allowed in Islam which is wrong because they are very much allowed as long as you are marrying somebody within the religion. Arranged marriages are just a culture that asians seem to like to follow. They have nothing to do with religion at all. In fact, one of the popular love stories is that of Prophet Muhammad's daughter who fell in love and asked her father to marry her to the man she loved. In my opinion, which is really a fact so many of us scream all the time - unfortunately not loud enough; the problem is not religion at all, it is education. Stoning and honor killings do not happen in urban educated classes or area, why? Because they are educated, doing such a thing is beyond their imagination. Yet these are common amongst uneducated class. Forced marriages and the concept of 'honor' are all common in village areas where there is a large uneducated class. The extremist terrorists? Do you think they are educated at all? They are not. And it is not just the education of a man that is necessary but the woman's is just as important.
I hope this blog made at least a few of you think! Godspeed. 
100%
