Customer Reviews (1)

Women In The Islamic Societies Of Bangladesh And Pakistan
Hanifa Deen is an Australian author of Pakistani ancestry, which makes her the perfect author to bring these stories to the readers of western societies."Broken Bangles" has some stories which may make you laugh, some which may make you cry, and some which will probably shock you.All of the stories will teach you something more about women living in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and their struggle to survive, adapt and grow in those Islamic societies.

Some may feel that the description of the societies of Bangladesh and Pakistan as being male dominated is a stereotype, but it is very clear from the stories which Hanifa Deen relates that there are significant restrictions on women in both those countries.These stories are about the way the women work within the biases, or even defy them, to varying degrees of success.The bangles are a metaphor for the shackles which these women have placed on them, while the women themselves wear the colorful bangles as ornament.

The book is divided into two sections.The first is about Hanifa Deen's visit to Bangladesh, initially to learn about Taslima Nasreen, a Bangladesh woman who had been embraced by the west as a symbol of an Islamic woman who has stood up against the unfair treatment of women.Hanifa soon learns though that Taslima is not viewed inside Bangladesh, by women, in the same way.The bulk of this section is about Hanifa's experience in Bangladesh, and the stories of many of the women who she met there.The reader learns a lot about the way life works there, especially in the urban areas.The stories build, until at last the story of Yasmeen Akhter is told, giving the reader a stark realistic view of the way society works outside of the city.

The second section is about Hanifa in Pakistan.Here again she tells the story of various women from different social groups.She even has a chapter about foreign women who married Pakistani men and are living in Pakistan.Once again the reader learns a lot about Pakistani society, which is similar and yet has differences from that of Bangladesh.As with the first section, there is one key story which really impacts the reader in the telling.The violence towards and the betrayal of Zainab Noor will impact anyone who reads it.

While those who want to attack Islam can undoubtedly use the stories of Yasmeen Akhter and Zainab Noor as evidence, they would have missed the main message of those stories, and certainly of the book as a whole.If anything, this book inspires hope for the future.Progress has been incredibly slow, and so often it seems as if some of these societies are moving in the wrong direction, but the reality is that things are improving.There is a short Postscript by Hanifa after she returned to Bangladesh.She brings closure to the two key stories.While one can never forget the horrible events which happened to those two women, it is clear that those events are not accepted by either society.

I found this to be an exceptional book.Hanifa Deen relates the stories as much without bias as possible, and does an excellent job of relating her own position with regards to the women she interviewed.Those from western societies will undoubtedly be enlightened as to the culture and societies of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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Poems about life and travels in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, China,
Russia, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria. Original poems as well as a few classic poems from Rabindranath Tagore, William Blake and Walt Whitman. An armchair adventure and escape!
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With reference to South Asia. ... Read more

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Impact on socio-economic and political status of women in Bangladesh; study of two villages, Dewannagar in Hathazari and Hetalia in Patuakhali districts. ... Read more

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Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore's most beautiful poetry, translated into English is almost as beautiful as in its native Bengali. Fifty selected poems from Tagore, as well as three original poems, Tagore Biography. Descriptions, languages, maps of India, Kolkota, Bangladesh. 26 photos, illustrations, maps, charts - India, Bangladesh. Chart - 23 most used languages of India. How to read Bengali. 500 word Bengali language essentials. ... Read more

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This is a book about a writer, Islamic fundamentalism, mythmaking, and international literary politics. It is the story of Taslima Nasreen, a former medical doctor and protest writer who shot to international fame in 1993 at the age of thirty-four after she was accused of blasphemy by religious fanatics in Bangladesh and her book Shame was banned. In order to escape a warrant for her arrest, the controversial writer went underground and, as the official story has it, fled to the West where she became a human rights celebrity, a female version of Salman Rushdie. Taslima Nasreen's name almost became a household word in 1994, when she was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament, and she was feted by presidents, chancellors, mayors, and famous writers and intellectuals around Europe for two years. She is still remembered and widely admired as a modern-day feminist icon who fought the bearded fundamentalists in her own country and whose life was in danger. This is the official story that most people are familiar with, and the one that is widely believed by Taslima supporters around the world. However, as The Crescent and the Pen reveals, in the style of a literary detective tale, the true story behind the international campaign to save Taslima has bever been told until now.

Following on the trail of Taslima, Deen questions the reasoning behind the international crusade to save her, in the process debunking much of the current thinking that has shaped Islam into the new global enemy. She discovers that the story of what really happened to Taslima is a fascinating labyrinth where memory and myth have merged, the tale having acquired a life of its own with a hundred different authors.

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This book explores the character of the political transformation and democratic transition in the Asian Muslim world. It asks whether democracy is appropriate and desirable as a political system for non-Western societies, and assesses the extent of actual democratization in each of the countries studied, namely, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. ... Read more

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CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES.
HINDOO TALES OR, THE ADVENTURES OF TEN PRINCES
ADVENTURES OF SOMADATTA.
ADVENTURES OF PUSHPODBHAVA.
MARRIAGE OF AVANTISUNDARI.
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF RÂJAVÂHANA.
ADVENTURES OF APAHÂRAVARMA.
ADVENTURES OF UPAHÂRAVARMA.
ADVENTURES OF ARTHAPÂLA.
ADVENTURES OF PRAMATI.
ADVENTURES OF MITRAGUPTA.
ADVENTURES OF MANTRAGUPTA.
ADVENTURES OF VISRUTA.
LITERAL TRANSLATIONS.
PROPER NAMES, ETC., OCCURRING IN THE TALES.
FOOTNOTES:
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