The Why and the Who...

Daughters are Diamonds is a treatise on the objectification of women in honour-bound sectors of society.

As a study, it sets out to define these questions:

How are the opportunities, challenges and obstacles facing South African Indian Muslim women within the family, perceived and experienced by the individual?

To what extent, if at all, does traditionalist culture create/influence a gap between opportunity and achievement for South African Indian Muslim women?

The statement that “women are diamonds” is often used by Indian Muslim traditionalists to justify the abject seclusion of women. In this view, that which is valuable should be hidden in safekeeping. The metaphor of the diamond is used to illustrate the objectification of daughters borne of honour-bound societies, and the limits put to the administration of their lives, in keeping with the code of honour. This study is a comment on the notion that, in keeping with this honour code, there is a fine line between maintaining the dignity of a people and infringing on the rights of the individual. It also asks whether women are able to carve out a space for themselves within which a fully reflexive life may be lived in spite of the restrictions placed on them.

A fun distraction denoting diamonds n daughters;)

In tribute to the title of the book, a friend just mailed me a logic-question denoting daughters and diamonds:- To get the creative juices flowing so to speak :P

Lets see what you peeps think up on this one!

There was once a man who had 2 daughters A and B. He converted his entire estate into 9 or 16 diamonds, and decided to give each daughter some diamonds. Suppose MAX denotes the maximum number of diamonds, and he gave daughter A X diamonds, then daughter B got MAX-X diamonds. What he did just before dying was to tell daughter A how many diamonds daughter B had, and he also told daughter B how many diamonds daughter A had. After he died, each daughter wanted to know how many diamonds she had gotten, so they had the following conversation:

1)A: Tell me how many diamonds I got.
2)B: No first you tell me how many diamonds I got.
3)Ok, I now how many diamonds I got.
4)I too now know how many diamonds I got.

How many diamonds were there in all, and how many did each of the daughters get?

Cover Me...

hey all..
the prospect of getting my work in print is filled with ambivalence; on the one hand, excitement and joy forseen/ and on the other some amount of anxiety, towards getting things done in the right way, and of course once the child script walks, having to let it go out into the big bad world..
*sigh*
feeling like a lil mommy, i am!
the crawling child shall walk, perhaps it shall be bruised, grazed knees and the works.. who knows.. but this is life, hey!
ive run through some edits with the guys in layout and typesetting..
script is doing ok. sailing smooth as far as i can see.. its the cover design thats wreakin havoc with me: - take a peek and give me a review!

The Manuscript

Daughters are Diamonds, the manuscript has been sitting in my lap for three years now. Almost. And the time has come to see this work find published fruition. This, is now a work in progress for a few months already, with a plan to print by late January 2007. The deadline looms.

In an attempt to resolve some of the anxieties that i am presented with, this blog occured to me.. to log the progress and to introduce the long-awaited work. The final product.

Read on.. and wish me luck!

Shafs