his is my Islam projrect

The Breaker of Tradition

by Lucian Figliulo

Rebels are brave and strong inside and out. In Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples, a 12 year old girl in Pakistan was a rebel to her culture and her family. In Pakistan, women like Shabanu don’t have as much freedom as boys do. Shabanu   stands against sexisim. Shabanu is not a typical Muslim girl.

Shabanu does not do what is expected of her. She does not obey her father and she does not follow the role of a traditional Muslim women  “If I go to live with Sharma I will be free.” pg.232 This quote shows that she wants to run away and be free like a boy is. She will not have to be married, she could have more options and there would be different expectations of her. She will have her guardian angel, her aunt, Sharma. Shabanu’s life would be different with Sharma because she does not believe that boys are better. Dadi wants Shabanu to be a typical Muslim girl but she is not. “ You stay here and help your mother…” pg.230. This shows that Shabanu is not lazy but she doesn’t want to do what is expected of a girl. She wants to tend to the camels. But since she is a girl she must do the chores traditionally meant for girls. This is very sexist. Shabanu does not want to do the everyday work expected of her but she wants a say in her future.

Shabanu does not want to get married to Rahim-sahib. Every Muslim woman is expected to get married, but Shabanu wants to pick her own husband. She doesn’t want to have her parents pick her husband. “His eyes never left you. They begged you to look at him.”pg. 225. This is when Sharma is giving Shabanu courage to marry Rahim-sahib. This quote is interesting because Sharma does not want Shabanu to be like her, husbandless, but Shabanu is happy with being like her. Shabanu even wants to be like her. “…but my life will belong to him.” pg 231 This quote shows that Shabanu wants to be her own person but sadly she does not have the choice to be her own person. If Shabanu gets married she belongs to her husband and her husband gets a say in everything she does. Should Shabanu stand up to her husband like she did her father?

Shabanu stands up for herself. Shabanu protects herself against attackers.  “…tossing the water jugs down the side of the embankment…” p. 155 This quote shows that in hard situations Shabanu knows how to deal with things. These men were going to sexualy assault Shabanu, and her sister, Phulan. Shabanu thought quick and threw  water at them so they would be distracted. Most Muslim women don’t have the courage to do that so not only did Shabanu stand up for herself she stood up for Phulan. Shabanu is running away so she doesn’t have to get married  “… so they won’t know that I’m gone if they awake.” p. 234 She could stay and get married and be another old housewife but she doesn’t want to. She is standing up for herself and women everywhere saying that she’s not getting married.

Throughout the book, Shabanu rebels against things she doesn’t think are right.  Shabanu does not do what she’s told, she does not want to get married and she stands up for herself and other people. Though this is not what a typical Muslim women is like it is good that some Muslim women are like her. These rebels are going to change the view that men are better than women. Be like Shabanu and   fight for what is right.

This is my Shabanu essay. Shabanu is a book that we read in core. Our class wrote persuasive essays about it.

This is my musical style. I chose classic rock but it sort of morphed into my own style.