Join Dr. Sharifa Sharif in Toronto on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 to celebrate the launch of On the Edge of Being: An Afghan Woman’s Journey.
Dr. Sharif will be reading an excerpt from her book and signing copies at Ben McNally Books from 5pm-7pm.
Ben McNally Books
108 Queen Street East
Toronto
“Sharif is a gifted storyteller, giving powerful firsthand accounts from the experience of women in remote rural provinces of Afghanistan. With both eloquence and humour, Sharif painstakingly recounts in her acute observations the complex, aggrieved and storied culture she was born into and still loves.”
Dr. Lauryn Oates, Executive Director of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan
Sometimes painful and at other times shocking, the stories in On the Edge of Being are still hopeful. The world that Afghan women inhabit in this memoir illuminates the split between body and voice — a split that has wrought a devastating impact on the women of Afghanistan.
The daughter of a progressive Afghan governor, Sharifa Sharif observes from an early age that life for women — both within and beyond the walls of their homes — is neither simple nor fair. As she navigates the rocky terrain of what it means to be a woman in Afghan society, Sharif candidly connects her own troubling experiences with those of girls and women around her: those who appeal to her father for justice, those who work as servants in her friends’ homes, and those of her own mother, whose inability to alter the restrictions in her own life evokes both anger and empathy.
From her childhood travels through the poorest provinces in Afghanistan to life as a schoolteacher and an immigrant student in North America, Sharif strives to define her identity through her experiences of marginality — and learns to reclaim her body and herself.
Please click here for the On the Edge of Being Facebook Event Page.
Pownal Street Press is PEI’s newest publishing house. Women owned and women led, friendly, warm and professional: Pownal Street Press brings an approachable perspective to publishing books. With decades’ of experience, Pownal Street Press Co-Founders, Genevieve Loughlin and Mo Duffy Cobb have extensive publishing backgrounds across editorial, book design, marketing and sales. With distribution through Raincoast Books, Pownal Street Press’ titles have national reach but local heart. For more information about the Press and its books, please visit: www.pownalstreetpress.com.