For our second book club, we read The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar. We all agreed that, while the content was heartbreaking and difficult to bear at times, the book centres an incredibly important Australian story. The novel, told from Amani’s point of view, covers the murder of her mother, Salwa Haydar, by her father. Amani draws a line connecting the violence and suffering in many countries around the world to the struggles and pain faced by families and communities here in the suburbs of Australia.
We all found personal connections to the story – for some it brought new perspective to our own relationships with family, for others a deeper understanding of the struggles that Muslim women face navigating the expectations of their communities and the racism of broader Australian society, and for all of us the book shed light on the problems with the legal and social security systems that make facing and escaping domestic abuse almost impossible for many women. The story felt close to home as it was set in suburbs of Sydney which we all know well, with organisations that we have worked with, and featuring people who move at the periphery of our social circles.
Violence against women, and in any form, is unacceptable. Stories like Salwa Haydar’s remind us of the important role we have individually, and as a company, in addressing gender-based violence in our communities and work.
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