CALL HER FREEDOM by author Tara Dorabji, is the author’s debut novel. She is an award-winning filmmaker, published writer and radio journalist. The novel, a work of fiction, is set in the sensitive geo-political region of Kashmir in the northernmost part of India. The feelings and the atmosphere captured though bear a canny resemblance to the history of the region in the past 100 years.
The families we meet live and work in the land surrounded by the majestic mountains. The women of the families rule the roost where the men are more or less embroiled in the political situation of the region. The story focuses on these women’s perspectives – of Noor Jahan, her daughter Aisha, the women in their extended family and their friends. Noor Jahan has a reputation in the area, feared, mostly shunned, believed to be a witch and only called upon when her medical expertise is required. She lives alone with her young daughter, in a rickety cottage and her land in the mountains.
Besides her medical work as a herbalist and midwife, she tends to her land, grows her own food and some more to make ends meet. She’s recently orphaned and also estranged from her husband when we meet her, though she has extended family nearby. As a single parent, she brings up her daughter Aisha with her own values and a keen sense of protectiveness after her husband leaves. At seven years of age, Aisha is reluctantly enrolled in the local school. She is keen on Aisha being educated in word as well as life as soon as possible.
Here, we meet Aisha and catch up on her life progress in mostly 10-year leaps. At 18, Aisha is a young woman and the star of her school, with a bright future and dreams of attending university. Life though has different plans as Noor Jahan readies her by teaching her everything she needs to survive after her death. Soon Aisha gives up her scholarship, marries the school teacher’s son, and carries on her mother's work. All the while nursing secrets and heartbreaks of the past. Next, she is a mother of two, trying to live harmoniously with her in-laws in her husband’s home. Still, living part-time in her mother’s house, tending to the lands, earning a handsome sum for the upkeep of her in-laws and husband's lifestyle. Life goes on till we meet Aisha in the present, in her 60s and living in the regions capital, with her father and her niece. Aisha flees to the region’s capital having survived death, terror, and brutality at the hands of the army; leaving behind the home she grew up in and tasted freedom most of her life.
There’s a sense of or rather illusion of freedom for our protagonists. Though they had financial freedom and opportunities to attain higher education they were tied to their lands, to home. It is this illusion of freedom that helps them survive though. It was heart-breaking to see how having the world at their feet or the opportunity to make their place in the world they face limits and obstacles made by self and society. I was disheartened to see how the protagonist gives up her scholarship in exchange for security – of a home, husband and preserving her mother’s legacy. It is baffling how she never really complains about this or even talks about the sacrifices she’s made.
It is the societal conditioning that turns the freedom she actually has into a mere illusion due to the familial ties she binds herself to.
Aisha and her mother’s journey is brave, resilient, and horrifying yet it has its moments of beauty, hope and happiness. It highlights the sacrifices they make as women for family and a sense of belonging. The way they carry on despite the things life throws at them; is both inspiring and heartbreaking. I kept coming back to the feeling of how sad it was to witness the contradicting conditions throughout the story. It showed how people experience hardships, hopelessness, and sacrifices with no real promise of peace, happiness, or joy. It was ironic to witness such human conditions in a place surrounded by stunning natural beauty that has the power to turn frowns into smiles.
It is this contradiction that kept me reading and hoping well for the women in the story even when I knew it was pointless. The resilience of the women captures and keeps the reader’s attention. It is seeing society and its invisible shackles in action. It also gives glimpses of how freedom even when we have it, is merely an illusion in practicality. Freedom – how it is more of a mindset than a practical way of life, I’d say it is this feeling that captures the essence of the story.
CALL HER FREEDOM is equally beautiful in how it captures a woman’s resilience and the cost she pays for it and is also terrifying in how her freedom is shattered by everyone including herself at times.
A sweeping family saga following one woman’s struggle to protect her culture and her family amidst the backdrop of a military occupation.
In the foothills of the Himalayas, the picturesque mountain village of Poshkarbal is home to lush cherry and apple orchards and a thriving community—one divided by a patrolled border. Aisha and her mother Noorjahan live on the outskirts—two women alone in a world dominated by men. As the village midwife, Noorjahan teaches Aisha how to heal using local herbs and remedies. Isolated but content, Aisha is shocked when Noorjahan decides it is time for her to attend the village school as few girls do. Despite the taunting of her classmates and the teacher’s initial resistance to having her in the class, Aisha becomes a star student, destined for college.
When Aisha’s hand is bequeathed to a local boy in the village, she is forced to abandon her dreams of college. She comforts herself by staying on her ancestral land, creating a nourishing life with her children and husband. But her mother’s secrets come back to haunt her and her marriage and the growing military presence in Poshkarbal force Aisha to make impossible choices in order to save her family and preserve the independence Noorjahan fought for. What follows is a family chronicle brimming with life, love, and humor, about sacrifice and honor, and fighting for your home and culture in the face of occupation.
A deeply moving novel about one woman’s love for her family, this is an epic investigation of colonialism, militarization, and the loss and innocence on the journey to creating home. Spanning 1969 to 2022, Call Her Freedom is a love story that untangles family secrets and heals generational wounds, announcing Tara Dorabji as a thrilling new voice in fiction.
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