My book "Daughters of Kerala"

Two Young Muslim Women

     There are two stories in “Daughters of Kerala” about young Muslim women whose husbands are away working to make a living. The main character in "Nerchakkottan" (Sacrificial animal), Sulaiyakutty has a pet lamb that she cares for from the time it is born. It is killed for Bakrid, the festival marking the end of the 30 day fast, as it was meant for that. Shortly after that her father dies. Because she is a fatherless child, the elders in the village take a collection to get her married to a man working in the gulf. When his vacation is over the groom goes back to the Gulf, leaving a pregnant Sulaiyakutty. She is not able to handle her life of “Thirty-five months of separation and one month of married life,” as the author puts it. She becomes insane, doesn’t take care of the baby and is brought back to her house without the baby. A letter arrives three days later with the news of the divorce. In the end Sulaiyakutty is found dead after she escapes from the mental asylum her brother has taken her to.

     This is a story about a married woman who lives far away from her husband. They represent the thousands in similar situations because the men go away for two to three years at a stretch to work in the Middle East and elsewhere, leaving the wife to toil in the kitchen and attend to other household chores. Some of these women can get caught in the down swirl of problems arising out of the situation from which they are unable to get out.

     On the other hand, this kind of separation has a positive impact on Ameena in "The Dawn of Enlightenment." She wants to make sure her daughter receives at least a basic education. Ameena has problems because she doesn’t know to read and write. The mail man has to take her hand to get the thumb print instead of her signature on the money order she gets from her husband who is in the Navy. She also has to depend on him to read her husband’s letters to her and write her response to her husband. Ameena wants to make sure that “Kafir wouldn’t touch” her daughter’s hand. For that she sends her daughter to school to learn to read and write.

     The situations are similar in the two stories, but the ways the two women handle them are poles apart.

     India Edition of “Daughters of Kerala” is available from: Rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com