Marrying Ameera

by Rosanne Hawke

A story of forbidden love and the gulf between cultures, as seen through the eyes of a Pakistani-Australian. Ages 14+Seventeen-year-old Ameera has just finished school and her friendship with tariq, her best friend's older brother, is growing. But when her father hears of it he sends Ameera to stay with his family in Kashmir and attend her cousin Jamila's wedding. Only when she gets there does she discover the devastating truth - the intended marriage is not Jamila's but her own! Will Ameera be trapped forever, or can she find strength beyond her years to escape from Pakistan and win back her freedom?

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary

292 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

When little I ran around with a jotter and a pencil, pretending to write a story but not knowing how to spell any words except Dick, Dora and cat. My mother asked me to tell stories. A lot of my stories stayed in my head, as being the youngest and living in the country didn't bring many opportunities for an audience. I was born in Penola, in South Australia. We had a sheep farm until I was six, then we moved to a property in Central Queensland. I went to school at a one-teacher school in Banana, a little country town named after a bullock.

My first short story was published in the Moura State School magazine in 1967 when I was in grade 8. At 14 years, I moved back to South Australia and attended Gawler High School where I won an Arts Scholarship to complete Years 11 & 12. I started a romantic novel when I was 17 but I burnt it later.

It wasn't until I was working in the Middle East and Pakistan, teaching ESL, bringing up kids, when I started to write seriously. My kids loved the story game we played and one night after telling a story, my daughter asked me to write it down.

I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and teach Creative Writing at Tabor Adelaide, South Australia, a Christian accredited tertiary institution. I have researched Cornish identity in Australian children's literature and enjoy writing about culture, faith, relationships, displacement and belonging, music and cats.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn into Ameera's world in the YA novel Marrying Ameera by Rosanne Hawke. The book has a beautiful cover and is it is a pleasure to read.

Ameera is half Pakistani, half Australian Muslim girl from a loving and devout family. She has just finished her matriculation and has plans to study teaching at Uni. Her Pakistani father is increasingly worried that she will be 'corrupted' by the looseness of Australian culture and gives her a surprise gift: a 5 week holiday with her Pakistani relatives to help celebrate her cousin Jamila's wedding. But all is not as it seems and Ameera finds herself in a frightening scenario and despairs that she will ever escape it. Help comes from unexpected quarters but will it be too late?

Rosanne Hawke expertly builds up Ameera's character through a first person point of view, showing the psychological conflict and tension Ameera experiences.She brings to life Pakistani culture and beliefs in a nuanced and empathetic manner, including the richness of fairy tales, traditions, food,religion, fabrics, customs, architecture and relationships in a seamless way. The story builds up in tension and culminates in an exciting finish.

My only caveat was that as the back cover and promo reveals the premise of the book, I found it harder to submerge into it as I knew what was happening or was about to happen while the character was still in the dark. Once the Ameera makes the discovery of why she is really in Pakistan, I was able to lose myself fully into the book and was caught up in the rising action.

It does have a couple of scenes that some readers might find difficult to read but this book does deal with difficult themes which are important to address and the scenes are in no way gratuitous.

I would recommend this book for older teens.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH MY .. I could not put this book down! For me it was seriously one of the best reads I've read in a while. When culture mixes with religion and the pull of culture skews the reality of God/religion. Though heartbreaking this is a really good story to open our eyes to people living within out boarders who live by a different set of laws and rules. This novel portrays an ugly level of domestic and family violence that is tolerated and accepted within cultural mindsets - but in truth, DFV is not ok in any people group.

[Elaine Fraser]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I heard Roseanne speak at a writers' conference last year and was intrigued by her storytelling. Marrying Ameera is an interesting read as it is about an Australian/Pakistani girl caught between two cultures.

She has a Muslim father and Christian mother and this is where the clash of cultures gets complicated. Attitudes to women and marriage are explored in a sympathetic way that honours culture, but questions the legitimacy of arranged marriages when the parties do not give their consent.

'Freedom or honour,
for better or worse.
What would you choose?'

It's an interesting dilemma and one that is skilfully explored in this novel. I'd highly recommend it.

[Dessi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.6 actually.

WOW!!! What a book <3
It's light hearted, yet so full of emotion and truth that you can't help feeling sorry for Ameera.
Yes It addresses a Pakistan tradition but it shows how we have changed and the importance and value of friendship, rights and of course love!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

It just goes to show how lucky we are to not be put in a position where we are forced into marriage.
Even though it has a semi good ending, I found it very eye-opening that this still happens in today's society and not everyone has a fairy tale ending.

[Marwah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not writing a review just clarifying because some people seem confused...

What Ameera experienced is a FORCED marriage NOT an arranged marriage.

[sim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I had to read it for a year eight student that I'm tutoring, and it is clear by the writing style that it is meant for a younger audience. For instance, instead of following the rule "show, don't tell", Hawke does both, which I find slightly insulting to readers' intelligence, even given the young target audience. Furthermore, the beginning of the book is quite slow, and the development of the characters is quite lacking. In particular, I didn't really get a sense of who Ameera was, all she did was go shopping and watch a lot of movies. Plus, the relationship with Tariq and Ameera wasn't deeply developed either. I found it hard to believe that Ameera loved Tariq after a few weeks of talking to him as she claimed. Finally, towards the end, I found it disappointing that Ameera was essentially the damsel in distress that had to be saved by a male embassy worker, her brother, and Tariq.

However, I did enjoy the book. It was very engaging, and whilst I wasn't reading I was thinking about, and I feel like I'll be thinking about this book for a while more. In addition, it seems that Hawke did an extensive amount of research on Pakistani culture and folktales, as well as arranged and forced marriages. Consequently, I learnt a lot that I may never have had the opportunity to learn. I would definitely recommend it to readers young and old, bearing in mind trigger warnings surrounding abuse, rape, forced marriages and death.

[Eloise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for school and honestly it was the only book that I have read for class that I genuinely enjoyed. I was enthralled within the storyline and the characters. I was fascinated by the lack of emotion within the book but soon came to the conclusion that the emotion is meant to be channeled through the reader. My only reservation was that the “love” occurred too quickly for me to form a connection to it and left me questioning the authenticity of it. Otherwise it was a page-turner with incredibly developed and thought out characters.

[Saleha Aziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story and marvellous characters.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

the book was too slow and confusing for me personally. it was simply too long drawn, however i can understand why people may like the book.

[Scarlet]

Read for school wasn’t bad

[Soumiya Siva · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is racist shit

[Lyzelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for School

[anjali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! Marrying Ameera is about a Muslim teenager who is living in Australia, and she deals with a identity crisis. On one side, she wants to finish school. become an independent woman who has a job and marry her boyfriend (a non-Muslim) but her strict and traditional father disagrees. He believes that a Muslim woman's duty is to get married, have children, know how to cook and take care of her in-laws. What does he do? HE SENDS HER TO PAKISTAN saying that she should be resting after completing her year 12 exams. She thinks it as a holiday, staying with her relatives and attending her cousin Jamila's wedding (mind you who is 15?!). Little does she know when she arrives in Pakistan, the wedding is not of Jamila, but HERS!! Ameera gets forced into an arranged marriage that she doesn't comply with. does she get saved by her Australian mother, brother and boyfriend, or will she just have to live the rest of life like her Baba wanted her to?

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel centers around Ameera (born to an Australian mother and Pakistani father and raised Muslim), and the first third of the novel depicts her life in Adelaide, before taking Ameera and the reader to Pakistan. Though Ameera is a dutiful daughter, with an interest in her heritage, she also questions aspects of her upbringing and some of the issues and expectations of being a young Muslim in contemporary Australia.

Despite the cultural differences between Ameera and myself, I felt like she is a character a lot of young women can relate to. Once she is sent to Kashmir (supposedly on holiday to help celebrate a cousin’s wedding), we are able to share her thoughts and responses, as she is a ‘Westerner’ and somewhat of an outsider in new surroundings. Her main conflict – to stand up for herself and be able to make her own choices in life or uphold the reputation and honour of her family is an important one for many teens, and this is very well handled by Hawke throughout the course of the narrative.

For a novel which makes you think and sheds light on a surprisingly contemporary issue (I think we tend to forget that forced marriages still exist but going from these news stories like this and this, they are a reality), Marrying Ameera is an engaging and commendable read.

The full review was originally published here: http://my-girlfriday.blogspot.com/201...

[Goldenwattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, but I found some of it frustrating. Ameera’s silly weak mother for one. She felt it safe to send her daughter to Pakistan and didn’t suspect her husband was up to something! But at least her lack of intelligence running in the family was consistent. Her daughter was no brighter than her and took too long to work out what was happening. She had grown up with the idea of arranged marriages so should have been especially aware of what was going on earlier. Ameera and her mother were both too accepting. I could not buy Ameera’s mother’s submission and acceptance of her husband’s ideas, especially as she had not converted. If she had, perhaps it might have been a little more believable. She was western, she worked, and she still mixed with her family and others. It did not ring true to me. Neither did Ameera’s submission. She went to school, had western girlfriends, western family, a western mother and lived in a western country. And she was too ready to forgive her father and not see him sent to jail. No, it did not ring true. I once rented a room to a western woman who had married a Moslem. He had not been very religious then, but over the years he became very much so until the woman divorced him. Even after being married to him and even wearing the scarf this woman was not down trodden. And things she told me of her ex-husband were not good.
A page turner, but still I could not accept a lot of what we were supposed to.

[Deborah Abela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ameera is the seventeen-year-old daughter of a father from Pakistan and a mother from Australia. Having agreed to raise their daughter as a Muslim, there have been few clashes in the raising of Ameera and her brother, until now. Forbidden to associate with men outside her family, Ameera becomes attracted to her friend’s brother, Tariq, but when her father hears she’s been seen at the same party as him, he sends her to Pakistan to help with the wedding of her cousin. It is only after she arrives that Ameera slowly realises the marriage is for her and has been arranged by her father. Ameera manages to sneak a message to her brother and Tariq and is contacted by a man called Frank from the Forced Marriage Unit who agrees to try and help her escape. But will he be in time to save her before the wedding? And what happens if he arrives too late? This book is written with an insightful eye and warm respect for both sides of the cultural line Ameera straddles, but as the race to save her from a forced marriage quickens, the tension is white-knuckled. Rosanne has visited Pakistan several times, once for seven years, but it was during a trip in 2006 that she met a man from the Forced Marriage Unit in the British Consulate and the idea for this novel began.

[Bronwyn Mcloughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eye-opening story about the clash of culture and religion, of modern Australia and modern, yet ancient Pakistan. It seems like one of the fairy tales Ameera hears throughout this tale, unbelievably so given thwart it is a 21st century story. The strength of tradition and honour, even outweighing the bonds of family, freedom and love is such a contrast to the freedom to love as our hearts desire in the west. The betrayal that Ameera feels when her beloved father sends her unknowing to her forced marriage in Pakistan is unimaginable. Torn between faithful obedience and her desire to plan her own future, she does at least have some support, unlike Pakistani women in the same plight. The strength of the family honour concept at the cost of personal rights is just unbelievable. A tidy story that tries to understand, but promotes freedom of choice as being the truly honourable option.

[Linsey Painter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it. Ameera is a seventeen year old who loves her mother and father and tries her best to obey them. When she is sent back to Azad Kashmir to attend her cousins wedding, she willingly goes. Ameera is shocked to find out that her father has arranged a marriage for her and it's not her cousins wedding that she'll be attending but her own. Ameera struggles with anger, hopelessness, family honour and her own desires.
This book is beautifully written, I love Rosanne Hawkes inclusion of Pakistani folktales which add depth and understanding to the world view of the characters. Ameera's anguish as she has to choose between honouring her father and trying to figure out what is right, is very beautifully portrayed. The characters are full and rich.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic insight into Pakistani culture, that deals with marriage and family. The books was very well written, moved at a good pace and shed light on a delicate subject without overdoing it and being biased. I commend the author. The reason I gave this book a low rating was just that the story made me so sad. I viewed the fathers actions as a betrayal of his daughter, and didn't like that the mother couldn't seem to stand up to her husband. Without giving the story away, the simple fact is that it just made me sad, that a girl went through this and so many people didn't see why what she experienced was wrong. I was frustrated and upset for her, which is highly illogical, but was how I felt upon the end of the book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

When seventeen year-old Ameera is sent to Pakistan by her father after he discovers that she is seeing a Pakistani Christian boy, she thinks she is attending her cousin's wedding. It is only when she arrives in the country, that Ameera discovers that the wedding is for her. She finds herself trapped in a country where women are treated poorly, and it is only through her courage and determination that she survives the betrayals, beatings and rape.

This is a well written book which looks at the issue of forced marriage which still takes place within certain cultures. The author's knowledge of Pakistan is clearly demonstrated as she brings the culture, ceremonies and customs alive. Whilst this is a book of fiction it is a fascinating read which will appeal to a wide range of readers.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

After having the pleasure of meeting Rosanne Hawke, author of Marrying Ameera and numerous other titles, I was quick to pick up and finish this book.
Throughout the novel, I felt exactly what Ameera was going through - trapped and constricted, with no way out of her predicament.
Every possibility of freedom was removed piece by piece, and you could feel the suffocation through they words of seventeen year old Ameera.
I'll review this novel again in a few days, but right now i'm sitting at a (slightly biased) rating of 4.5 stars.
I higly reccomend this book to anyone and everyone, it is important to learn of the culture of arranged marriages - both good and bad.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marrying Ameera is a breathtaking novel that was absolutely heart stopping and compelling. Ameera is incredibly brave and is determined to stick up for herself and by what is right, which is hard with a father who has strong beliefs and conditional love for his family. When Ameera is sent off to stay with relatives for her wedding which she doesn’t find out about till it’s too late, she must find a way to break free and get back home.

[Divyaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book
Tells the story about a half Australian half Pakistani girl, who is sent to Pakistan, not knowning that she is going to be forced to marry. Along the way she falls in love and faces many complications, which make the readers cry.
This books illustrates the many stories of girls, who cant escape from a forced marriage.

I could not put this book down

[Miranda]

Rosanne Hawke visited my uni today to talk to my writing class about her books and her writing process and getting published etc. She talked a lot about this book which I decided sounded really interesting! I really want to read it if I can find it at a library.

[Coolbeans · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a fantastic book that, besides giving us an amazing story, gives us a look into a different culture and the way they do things and also the secret services of the people that are fighting to help people that are in situations we never even knew existed anymore.

[Lily Charman]

One of the best books I've read in a while. Really meaningful. I really enjoyed this book.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It showed what really can happen in tradition. I simpathised and hoped and wished right along with Ameera.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one. Such a well - told story, capturing characters and amazing portrayals.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent young adult novel dealing with the theme of forced marriage and honour in the Pakistani/Australian community.