Book Review: Women Dreaming By Salma

by Yash Sharma · Published September 2, 2023 · Updated September 4, 2023

Through her novel, Women Dreaming, the author has highlighted several issues related to women, especially those who live in the countryside. Be it the choices of their clothes, life partner, education, or the diktats of the men of the household. A thought-provoking story, do read.

What is Women Dreaming by Salma?

Women Dreaming is the tale of Mehar, Parveen, Sajida and the intertwined lives of women who were bound to live and think through the lens of the menfolk. It’s about patriarchy, religious orthodoxy, education, and most importantly, freedom.

Women Dreaming by Salma

Through the story, the author has tried to show many important yet neglected issues in our society, especially when it comes to women’s rights. The language of the book is easy to read. And the writing style is also laudable.

Important characters of the novel:-

These are the main characters of the story

Subaida – Hasan’s mother

Hasan – The orthodox man

Parveen – Sister of Hasan

Mehar – Hasan’s first wife

Sajida – Daughter of Mehar and Hasan

Ashraf – Son of Hasan and Mehar

Asiyamma – Mother of Mehar

Salient points of the book:-

These are my thoughts after reading the story,

1. In the garb of religion (in this story it’s Islam) people like to subdue women, especially those who strongly believes in the dominance of patriarchy.

2. Divorce and the trauma related to it can’t be gauged by any yardstick. In fact, being a divorced woman in the countryside or a small town is not easy.

3. Between the ego clash of a couple before the divorce, one thing that suffer too much is their children. They became kinda football. And this vicious cycle affect their mental health to an extreme level where they feel forlorn most of the times.

Why should you read this book?

These are the following reasons on the basis of which you can go for this novel:

• A women-centric book

• A story about religious orthodoxy vis-à-vis women’s rights

• A tale about the suffering of children due to their parents ego clash

My Ratings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

I hope you like this, thanks for reading. Jai Hind.

You can also order your copy of the book from Amazon India – Women Dreaming novel

Yash Sharma

Namaste reader, My name is Yash, and books for me are like a medicine, which removes my ignorance and also helps me in behaving more like a human.Though I live in the world’s largest democracy, India, but when I look around, I realized that this democratic nation of mine has turned into a kind of feudal oligarchy or kleptocracy, where people from a particular community or I would say particular surname has hijacked this democracy, and the political parties in India has turned itself into a kind of family enterprises where the family members are the only shareholders. And I want to change this, and books are a weapon which is helping me, so that I can help others and my nation.Shukriya for reading this Thought of mine.