Based on narratives of, and interviews with, Muslim men and women, this book furthers an understanding of the world and worldviews of those who have seen and lived through one or more violent confrontations and episodes in their lives. Through engagements with these survivors, it weaves many stories of devastating loss, the painful and never absolute process of recovery and the unrelenting battles for survival and for redress from the state.

It explores troubling issues like what it means to be a Muslim today; how people who have experienced such violence perceive their neighbours, their land, their own selves, and their practices, which have been violated during times of violence; and the ways in which the memories of violence bring about shifts in everyday life, in ideas of space and time.

Tremors of Violence seeks to demystify the stereotyping experienced by entering into the lives of everyday muslims.

‘I can Harden My Heart to Bear this’: Women's Words and Women's Worlds

‘I can Harden My Heart to Bear this’: Women's Words and Women's Worlds

‘I can harden my heart to bear this’: Women's words and women's worlds

Attention to human suffering means attention to stories

Cheryl Mattingly (1998: 1).

So do not even ask, do not ask what it is we are labouring with this time; Dreamers remember their dreams when they are disturbed—And you shall not escape what we will make of the broken pieces of our lives.

Abena P.A. Busia, (Liberation).1

Men and women speak differently about violence. This is now generally agreed upon (Das 1990, 1986; Kanapathipillai 1990; Ross 2001; Scheper-Hughes 1992), though the ways in which voices differ are not. In his classic study of the hibakusha of Hiroshima, Lifton (1967: 367–68) asserts that he usually found ...

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