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NEWS!! THANKS TO READERS AND DONORS, CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHELTER IS UNDERWAY IN PAKISTAN. IT WILL PROTECT WOMEN AND CHILDREN ESCAPING HONOR CRIMES AND OTHER FORMS OF ABUSE.
APPROXIMATELY $2000 IS STILL NEEDED. PLEASE GIVE IF YOU CAN OR BUY MORE COPIES OF MY BOOK, OR CONTACT ME BY EMAIL.
THANK YOU!
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Denver Post 2/18/2013 Denver author reaches out to help Pakistani women
Half of the proceeds from book sales have been donated for the construction of a safe shelter in Pakistan for women and children escaping abuse. In addition, many generous readers have made separate contributions toward this collective goal.
OUR NEW GOAL: $23,000
NOW DONATED TO DATE: $20,775!!
Inflation in Pakistan varies from 15-25% per year, thus the $15,000 (2010 estimated cost for construction) now is closer to $23,000. So more donations are still needed. Please give what you can below.
Hear my online interview by Pattie Welek Hall:
www.blogtalkradio.com/joyradio/2012/09/27/
jaqueline-st-joan-author-of-my-sisters-made-of-light
Official 2012 Book of the Month Selection of the American Association of University Women- AAUW
PLEASE ALSO VISIT ME: http://jacquelinestjoan.com
It's an important book, one that places a vital issue squarely on the table, makes it understandable and sympathetic, more than a sad fact of life in a far-away country. It's also a gripping read, hard to turn away from, hard to discount. Or to put on the shelf for later. The characters live and breathe; they are weak, brave, human; they can get under your skin and keep you awake at night. Susan O'Neill, author, Don't Mean Nothing
My Sisters Made of Light is a novel about the extraordinary courage of ordinary women living in the closed society that is contemporary Pakistan.
It exposes Western readers to Pakistan’s myriad cultures—from the mystical Sindhis in the South to the noble Pathans in the Northwest Province, the Punjabis in the East and the Balochis of the West.
Ujala, a teacher-trainer, travels throughout her country trying to unravel the strands of violence that are braided into Pakistani life, most notably “honor crimes” which engender pain and hopelessness in both their direct victims, as well as enabling social control of the broader female population. Along the way she enlists her sisters, her brother, her father, her students, and friends in the effort to rescue those destined for honor crimes, and in the process she rescues herself.
This raw but inspiring story of grass-roots resistance against oppression and injustice will spark the caring intelligence of readers everywhere.
Praise for My Sisters Made of Light
"Jacqueline St. Joan writes with the passion of a life-long feminist and the insight of wide experience. She brings to her story what she brought to the law, a conviction that life is full of both struggle and purpose and that grace comes to us when we have no reason to expect it." —Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
"I started reading My Sisters Made of Light and could not put it down. It is a powerful story, well-presented, well-researched, and written with passion. The labor of duty became a labor of love. I read voraciously but have not come across a work which deals so effectively and skillfully with the cultural fault lines of Pakistani society." —S. Akhtar Ehtisham, author of A Medical Doctor Examines Life on Three Continents: A Pakistani View
"My Sisters Made of Light is an exquisitely-told story. By weaving her far-reaching knowledge, experience, and imagination, Jacqueline St. Joan’s characters and settings bloom. Its narrative movement is simultaneously dynamic and delicate, deftly floating the reader through scenes, internal points of view, and an overall intriguing story that resonates in both the physical and ethereal senses." —Tom Popp, managing editor of F Magazine