Full name: Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl

Authors: Virginia Lee Barnes, Janice Patricia Boddy Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Amazon Goodreads ISBNs: 9780679762096 0679762094

This is the extraordinary first-person account of a young woman's coming of age in Somalia and her struggles against the obligations and strictures of family and society. By the time she is nine, Aman has undergone a ritual circumcision ceremony; at eleven, her innocent romance with a white boy leads to a murder; at thirteen she is given away in an arranged marriage to a stranger. Aman eventually runs away to Mogadishu, where her beauty and rebellious spirit leads her to the decadent demimonde of white colonialists. Hers is a world in which women are both chattel and freewheeling entrepreneurs, subject to the caprices of male relatives, yet keenly aware of the loopholes that lead to freedom. Aman is an astonishing history, opening a window onto traditional Somali life and the universal quest for female self-awareness.   Similar books: Desert Flower by Waris Dirie Desert Children by Waris Dirie This Child Will Be Great by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Burned Alive by Souad Burnt Toast by Teri Hatcher The Tale of the Rose by Consuelo de Saint-Exupery