I Should Have Honor by Khalida Brohi - Review

I Should Have Honor by Khalida Brohi. 

This is a slim book with a great amount of power.  Khalida Brohi is a Pakistani woman who grew up in a tribal village where family and tradition are valued and a family's honor is upheld above all, even to the point of death.  While still a young girl, she discovers that her favorite cousin is killed after she disgraces the family by running away with the boy that she loves. 

It is a called an honor killing.  

Khalida's entire life is changed by this event.  As she grows older, stopping this practice will become her one defining goal.  But she realizes that trying to attack this challenge directly won't work in her male-dominated society so she has to adopt a much more nuanced approach.  

Her strategy is inspired by her father, who was an early supporter of her access to education and has held the role of journalist as well as community organizer.  It involves a great deal of talking and finding ways to empower women so that they are seen as valuable and essential.  She succeeds in building programs that seem to carry on well without her direct oversight and you can see her evolving into a inspiring entrepreneur who helps indigenous women capitalize on their cultural traditions.  The embroidery on the cover celebrates this.  

But eliminating the practice of honor killings remains the focus of her work and doing that is quite dangerous.  Her family rightly fears for her life as well as their own and there is definitely a moment where her father becomes less supportive of her work.  After some times, she realizes that it is protective gesture.  

What Khalida Brohi does well in telling her story is to help the reader understand the extreme societal pressures that she and her family are under.  It is also abundantly clear just how much pride she has in her Pakistani culture.  There are times when the story gets bogged down with the many acronyms that represent the NGO (non-governmental organization) world in Pakistan but that is also a reality that Brohi has to work with.  

I bought one copy for my library when the book first came out and I am the third reader that it has had.  The cover and Brohi's compelling story sold itself from my table of new book reads.  The bright yellow cover helps it stand out.  Readers who enjoyed I Am Malala will definitely find this I Should Have Honor an engaging and valuable read.