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The Imam's Daughter

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 267 ratings · 47 reviews

Hannah Shah is an Imam's daughter. She lived the life of a Muslim but, for many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home.

At 16 she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, and she ran away. Hunted by her angry father and brothers, who were determined to make her an honour killing, she had to keep moving house to escape them. Then,...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 29th 2010 by Rider (first published January 1st 2009)

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Jun 03, 2010 Zillah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers, 2010, middle-east, books-l-own, non-fiction

I have to admit l struggled with1st few pages, but then l just got so into the story that it followed me even when l wasn't reading. Just as it said on the covers- terrifying! Terrifying beyond my comprehension! But in the same time full of hope after you manage to get about half way through the book.
What l liked about Hannan, in comparison to Ayaan Hirsi Ali ( whose book l didn't give a really good review) is that she made clear that it wasn't a book about Islam or against lslam, and that not a...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Vibina Venugopal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tour

Family is the greatest asset to a person, it comes as a warmth for a mother, affection of a father,togetherness of siblings , and its through a family one perceives the world around..IWorld's shabbiness is given a shade of beauty by family's support and a beautiful shade is further magnified..What if the beginning itself slumbers??? What if the people who were meant to protect turn around ruining life, then your becomes something like Hannah's..Hannah is a Muslim and obviously this name doesn't...more Family is the greatest asset to a person, it comes as a warmth for a mother, affection of a father,togetherness of siblings , and its through a family one perceives the world around..IWorld's shabbiness is given a shade of beauty by family's support and a beautiful shade is further magnified..What if the beginning itself slumbers??? What if the people who were meant to protect turn around ruining life, then your becomes something like Hannah's..Hannah is a Muslim and obviously this name doesn't resemble anything Muslim, original names are not used for the security reasons..Raised as a Muslim Hannah's life is nothing short of a whirlpool , like someone stuck in it she is unable to escape ..Hannah's father is an Imam who hates British calling them "Gorey" meaning white..She is abused and raped repeatedly by him and none in the family resist or call for help.. This is done for holding the honor of the family high..Everything is done in the name of family's honor..She points out one dig , that as per Muslim religion no actions are bad or wrong unless one is caught during the act, come on can you believe that?? I thought all religion discourages any such actions...Her neighbors ignore her cry., even her mother turns a blind eye on the bruises that she walks with, her mother is relieved from the fact that she has no longer to bear the physical assaults..In her desperation Hannah turns to a social worker for help and he in turn turns to her family , all that resulting into further sufferings..Her family sounds like a pack of evil than anything like a family, Her smiles watching a cartoon is retorted with hard treatment..Her mother tells her that she is not suppose to be happy, reading all this made me wish if they were only an exaggeration... One can not go on with all the horrendous actions of the family, its such a tormenting life to live by..She reaches her breaking when she happens to know about her arranged marriage to a Pakistani Muslim and her eventual shift from England..She escapes home, this time finding the right person, he not only helps her out but lets her stay at her home..The family drama continues as the Imam comes with other religious people crying for help..Her mother asks her to come back for the sake of family honour.. Come to think of it, the person who never bothered a string about her daughter had come with something like this...It would have been easy for anyone to collapse falling apart..I am in awe for this woman who faced things head on till she achieved peace..Adapting Christianity she is leading a life away from her parents in the hope to get that someday things would be better..This book would impel you to question many things,its an agonizing tale of a woman that would leave you dazed...(less)

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Sep 03, 2011 Susan B rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christian-biography

This book tells the fascinating true story of Hannan (now anglicized to Hannah), the daughter of a Pakistani Muslim Imam. Growing up in northern England and attending a public school, Hannah learned early on how very different her family was from that of English families. Watching the abuse of her mother by her father, and then experiencing his abusive hand herself, made her long for another kind of life.

At the age of sixteen, Hannah discovered that her parents were about to send her back to Pak...more

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May 04, 2010 Readersentertainment rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“My father was the Imam; my father was the mosque.” The world Hannah was born into meant her father has absolute power over nearly everyone, especially his family. A sometimes dark and brutal tale, the book is overwhelmingly a tribute the resilience of one woman’s soul.

Raped by her father from the age of five, Hannah Shah lived in a child’s pretend world to escape the horrors of her home. With imaginary Loneliness Birds from heaven coming to her rescue, she was able to survive beatings, rape, a...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Duane Alexander Miller Botero rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shah was born to a Pakistani family in the UK, where she was raised and lived all her life, making her part of one of the largest diaspora communities in the world. Her father was a truly evil man, and an imam in the local Muslim community. He started beating her at age five and then sexually molesting and raping her after that. This continued for over ten years until Hannah was finally able to escape. Much of the book is about the time at her home and you learn a great deal about the honor-sham...more Shah was born to a Pakistani family in the UK, where she was raised and lived all her life, making her part of one of the largest diaspora communities in the world. Her father was a truly evil man, and an imam in the local Muslim community. He started beating her at age five and then sexually molesting and raping her after that. This continued for over ten years until Hannah was finally able to escape. Much of the book is about the time at her home and you learn a great deal about the honor-shame culture of Pakistani Muslims. It is this honor-shame culture that keeps people quiet, and keeps her brothers and sisters and mother from doing anything to prevent their father from beating and raping their sister. This means that they are indeed complicit in the crime.

Shah eventually is able to escape and experience healing from this traumatic childhood. The healing is related to her conversion to the Christian faith where she finds a loving God—something she never encountered in Islam or Pakistani culture. She marries for love and carries forth her work of advocacy for Asian ladies in the UK through her book, public speaking, media appearances, and website. She was able to escape from the arranged marriage planned by her nefarious father (who was never punished by the law, sad to say).

In this book the loser comes out being British culture. It is flabbergasting that a man like Shah’s father can move to the UK in his 20’s, bring his wife over from Pakistan, teach his children and neighbors that white British people are dirty, never learn English, and then defraud the British government by saying he has a bad back and can’t work and thus he gets housing, food and benefits from the government, all the while working as the local imam and getting gifts from the mosque. And also, he never learns English. In case you did not get that, let me repeat: In 20+ years, he never learns English. He rapes and beats his daughter. He hates white people. He gets fraudulently gets benefits (and citizenship I presume) from the UK government. Behold the glory of British multi-culturalism. It is hard to see how a nation with such immigration practices has any future. The whole Pakistani community knows about this fraud and says nothing.

The book is a difficult read because of the sexual abuse Hannah suffers. Perhaps it was no coincidence that I read most of it on Good Friday; it’s appropriate given the suffering she underwent. Her purpose in writing the book seems two-fold, one is to raise awareness that these abusive practices are taking place in the UK and they are basically invisible to the larger society, again due to the naïveté of the ‘multi-culturalism’ of the white population. She is telling people to open their eyes, and stand up for the rights of Asian ladies who are victims of all sorts of abuse, including forced-marriages.

The other purpose I could discern is to share the beauty of the Christian faith with other such women. Here is a religion where women are respected and honored, yet it is also modest and not like the wanton pornography one sees on TV where everyone sleeps with everyone else and gets drunk all the time. There is a third option beyond the abusive misogynistic Pakistani culture of shame and the hedonistic, materialistic British culture—the Church, Jesus, and a loving God.

All in all this is a good read. The story flows well, and the editing has been done with care. Anyone with ties to the British Pakistani diaspora or women’s rights or Muslim evangelism will find much to interest them in this volume.
(less)

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Apr 05, 2011 Lonely Planet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, christian-based

This is the true story about a Pakistani Muslim girl growing up in Great Britain. Hannan Shah is probably one of the bravest young women I know and all the more so because of her Muslim background. She grew up in a household where her father, the spiritual leader of the community, begins raping and beating her in the basement at the tender age of 5, and continues to do so until she runs away from home at the age of 16. She meets up with a network of British families who hide her to prevent her f...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Kagama-the Literaturevixen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-the-real-world

Its about the daughter of immigrant Pakistani parents who live in the UK. The father is an iman who is a zealot when it comes to islam but who isnt very passionate about anything else.

Well almost, he also devotes a great amount of time to beating his wife,ignoring his children and hating everyone who isnt a muslim.
One day Hannan fights back and yells at her father to stop hitting her mother.This makes him start to target her also and eventually sexually abuse her.

She is 6 years old.

Her mother k...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Dina Al-rubaye added it · review of another edition

A little girl that suffered all her childhood, she was always coerced to obey rules that she did not even approve of , to live the dull despondent life under the dictation of her dad. She despised her life in every way. Her dad always made her feel like a worthless daughter that only deserved to be punished using the most appalling abusive methods. She had some skills in writing and it is considered an attainment to finish every verse of the Quran her dad ignored all those valuable traits of her...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Natasha Ghawi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book taught me many new things. For example, it taught me to appreciate the amazing family I was brought into. Even though we have gotten into our fights my parents have never been abusive and I thank god for that. The book talks about Hannan who later on changes her name to Hannah. She has been physically abused since the age of 5 and later on sexually abused by her father. Her family has never done anything to stop him. She could never reach out to anyone because her father was the imam o...more This book taught me many new things. For example, it taught me to appreciate the amazing family I was brought into. Even though we have gotten into our fights my parents have never been abusive and I thank god for that. The book talks about Hannan who later on changes her name to Hannah. She has been physically abused since the age of 5 and later on sexually abused by her father. Her family has never done anything to stop him. She could never reach out to anyone because her father was the imam of the street and no one would believe her. Slowly she started to trust her english teacher and confessed that she was physically abused. Her tacher sent her to a socia worker who confronted her father but only made her beatings worse. As she was turning 16 she was already in college, she found out that her parents were planning on sending her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. In college she met a new teacher who she trusted, her name was Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones got her a social worker that was very supportivee towards Hannan and Hannan trusted him as well. The night before her flight Hannan called the only friend she trusted, her name was Skip. Skip told her to go to college just like she usually does she then told her that she would pick her up from college and arrange things from there. She did as she was told but by the time she reached class she was going mad. Mrs. Jones and Barry her social worker came to her and planned things out. She was to stay with Mrs. Jones and her family. That was the beginning of her escape but certainly not the end. Even though Hannan was a muslim and had memorized the Qur'an she never understood it. When welcomed into Mrs. Jones house she became accustomed to their ways and soon was curious about their religion, Christianity. She started going to Church and soon decided to become a Christian. She became a Christian on Christmas Eve. When she told her birth family about her conversion to Christianity her father organized a riot and went after her. Almost every man on her old street was there waiting to burn her alive. Luckily she escaped and began to live on the run. She could not stay in one place for over two months. Later on she was accepted into Lancester University where she spent all her university years there. Into her last year her family found her once again and were after her. She completed university and then moved to South of England where she knew she would be safe. Over there she met a young man who she later on fell in love with and got married to him. During her relationship with him she was raising awareness for people experiencing hwhat she has been through. Towards the end of the book she was being interviewed by many reporters trying to understand the story of forced marriages. One of the reporters asked her, "Why raise awarenes? Why cause trouble?" She explained that if she kept quiet there would be many girls who would suffer just as badly as she did. She diid not want anyone to exprience that. After being asked that she was inspired to create even more awareness and decided to write this incredible book which has inspired me. I loved it.(less)

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Sep 08, 2012 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I borrowed this book from my local library as an audio E-book, to read while sewing, and doing household activities. It turned out to be a book that I will probably never forget. For the first half of the book at least, I didn't know if I wanted to continue listening to this true story of a small Muslim girl's life in Britain, the daughter of the Imam of the local Pakistani community. The details were so horrifying that I almost made the decision to stop listening. But something about the story...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Martin added it · review of another edition

I thought that I had experienced the ultimate in literary horror when I read Eishes Chayil's "Hush." However, although steeped in and drawn from reality, it was nevertheless a work of fiction. This book was the unvarnished paralyzing, stultifying horrific truth. How she survived intact from this hellish nightmare is beyond my understanding. They should bottle her courage and dole it out to those in despair. Her capacity to forgive is beyond my comprehension as well. The book clearly highlights t...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Smitha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audi, non-fiction

True, shocking incident of a young Pakistani girl beaten up and abused by her father, a local Imam of East Street, Birmingham, England, with her mother and a big family of 3 brothers and 2 sisters as onlookers. Not even her mother tries to protect her, even in the feeblest of ways. The abuse starts at the age of 5, lasts till 16 or so, at which age she escapes with the help of her university teacher and social workers. She then converts to Christianity, and is a marked target by her community. F...more

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 06, 2012 Shahad rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the imam's daughter is a true story of a girl who lived in an so-called "religious" muslim family. she lived a life of a caged butterfly struggling to get out, for about 10 years, her dad constantly abused her in the dark cellar of their home. she finally escapes at the age of 16 and converts to christianity after discovering a plan to send her back to pakistan for an arranged marriage.even after her escape, she was still hunted by her angry dad and brothers and one day, a mob of 50 man showed u...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Amaali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The flow of the book is good. However I see it as a typical story that criticize the religion of Islam. Hannan is abused by her father, the Imam of the community. It can happen to any girl anywhere in the world of any caste creed or nationality. She her self points out Islam fathers who love their daughters and who are not stern. So I don't believe that all that sufferings happened just because she is a Muslim. She just emphasizes the fact that she is Muslim.
Anyways the book was sort of unputdo...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 01, 2013 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was definitely worth reading. Parts of it were difficult to get through, especially the way she was treated by her father, in particular, and her family and community at large. However, I found I couldn't put it down. I think Hannah was very brave in writing this book and I hope she continues to be supported in her work helping Muslim girls.

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Oct 10, 2011 Shelli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ecc-book-club, books-of-2011

Heart-breaking but powerful story of a muslim girl, abused while growing up, but who eventually escaped her life. I'm really impressed with how the christian community she later found handled the situation. No one pushed her to convert, but they showed love and support without hiding where the source of their love came from. For more mature readers...could cause nightmares.

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Aug 19, 2011 Priya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very strong and real story about a little girl's journey from her home to freedom. The book illustrated how the various teachings that religion teaches (any religion for that fact) is only incorporated in word and not in spirit ..Very brave for the author to come out with this

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Aug 14, 2011 Abdulf rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A raw glimpse into the world of domestic violence and child abuse perpetrated by men who call themselves "Muslims". I was enraged at the father and sympathetic towards the girl and grateful for the people who saved her. I understand why she converted to Christianity and don't blame her.

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Mar 22, 2012 Falguni Kothari rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shocking and thought-provoking.
This line from the epilogue sums up the author's journey completely:
"In my eyes my life is not about misery: it is about love."
That she can think this after what she went through shows a strength of character to be admired and applauded.

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May 18, 2013 Carol Leach rated it 5 of 5 stars

To quote someobe else 'this is a terrifying book' but I couldn't put it down. How do these people get away with this sort of behaviour in this countty. And all in the name of religion. I am so proud of this girl that she managed to find the courage to escape .

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Oct 17, 2011 Margaret rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ecc-book-club, autobiography-biography-memoir

Read this memoir of a Muslim girl who escapes her tyrannical father just before being flown back to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. She was taken in and loved by a Christian teacher in her college and became a Christian. Thought provoking and sad story. Not a book to enjoy, but a good book to read none-the-less.

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Jul 03, 2011 *•.♥.•*Sabrina Rutter*•.♥.•* rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-eastern-women, favorites

I was a little worried that this memoir was going to be all about religion. I have christian beliefes, but don't attend church regularly, and so I was not looking forward to reading 288 pages of a religious testimonial. I'm so glad I went ahead and gave this book a go! Although the author talks about her faith, and conversion from islam to christianity she doesn't get carried away with it.
Everytime I think I have heard it all I stumble upon a book like this one. I was truelly shocked at the thin...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: human-rights, kindle, read-in-japan, racism

Wow. I finished this in just a few hours because I was so sucked in. I wanted to see if she managed to get away. Obviously because she's writing the book she does.

It's amazing to see what being uneducated and yet following a line of faith does. She expressed that not all families were filled with the same experiences and it sounds like even her sisters' experiences were radically different than her own.

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Mar 20, 2013 Stef Glover rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first few chapters were very confronting but if I found it uncomfortable reading about it then I cannot imagine how she felt dealing with it. What courage she has to tell her story and developer a stronger character through her journey, especially through the love of Christ.

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Jan 15, 2011 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kathy by: Carol Marcelle

I could not put this book down ...it's a quick read and because it's a true story it's a hard one to accept as well. Enjoyed it and the hope that it gives in having a personal relationship with Jesus.

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Aug 15, 2010 Karen G rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hannah Shah recounts her troubled upbringing within the Muslim faith and her extremely strict and disturbing family. This book is very unsettling most of the way through...hope and true love does prevail!

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Jan 25, 2011 Kdesoto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fascinating book. A sad life. The true story of an Imam's daughter - a devout Pakistani Muslim's family life in England. Hard to read as there was a lot of abuse by the Imam (father).

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Feb 20, 2013 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Learned a lot about what it is like to be a Pakistani Muslim in England. I loved her journey from being the daughter of an abuser to a beloved child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Feb 18, 2013 Chanel Du rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hannah is an excellent writer. her story I believe opened a lot of people's eyes. This is a story that is infuriating, yet inspiring

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Quotes from The Imam's Daughter

“Why was it always the adults who showed such blind hatred, while we children did our best to get along?” — 3 people liked it

“I cannot be silent about injustice. And I shall keep doing so because I love life, and I love my fellow humans who inhabit this world.” — 3 people liked it

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