Broken Bangles

A much-needed book in the subcontinent today, when women’s voices are often the last to be heard, and their concerns almost an after-thought. From the eccentric comforts of the Mona Lisa guest house in Dhaka to the dusty frontier town of Peshawar, Hanifa Deen traveled through Bangladesh and Pakistan to discover the many faces of Muslim women today, meeting and talking to mavericks, feminists and starry-eyed foreign wives; actresses and socialites; urban professionals and rural women who had never left their villages. With humor, compassion and insight, Hanifa Deen relates stories of their fight against oppression, of the friendship of women, of the joys and frustration of the extended family, of the unwritten laws that govern women’s lives and the violence that can threaten them. She also stumbles on the trail of a mystery – the murder of Yasmeen, an innocent girl whose death galvanized a nation and symbolizes the danger women face when they dare to step out6side the ‘circle of protection’.