A coming of age memoir
View(s):‘Stay, Daughter’ by Yasmin Azad is a coming of age memoir that gives an intimate glimpse of a world set in the Galle Fort. It follows the history of a community that in the late 19th century breaks with tradition of the time to give girls a secular education and permission to go out of their homes.
Before long, such freedom and expsure to foreign ideas brings heartbreak to many families as their daughters break away from the traditional norms.
Against this backdrop unfolds the story of a father and patriarch whose values are rooted in the conservative Islamic culture into which he was born. When in later years he has to negotiate a changing world where women are no longer who they used to be, tragedy unfolds.
Although the book narrates the story of a single family, it draws on a situation all Muslims struggle with: the challenge of balancing the rules of orthodox Islam with the freedom and innovations of the modern world.
Yasmin Azad grew up in the Galle Fort and now lives in the United States.
The book published by Perera Hussein Publishing House is now available at leading bookshops.