‘The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior’ a novel by Fauzia Rafique

paperback 6/9
212 pages
978-1-926763-44-6
$20.00

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blurbs

“Funny, tongue-in-cheek, and deliciously serious. A novel that looks misogyny in the eye and says ‘No’. From birth, SahebaN refuses. She is uncompromising and she prevails, becoming a legend in her time. In Rafique’s telling she’s everywoman and Everywoman’s avatar.”

“A gleeful genre-defying book, part feminist fantasy, part creative non-fiction.”

– Susan Crean
Author of The Laughing one – a Journey to Emily Carr

This fantastically complex tale presents what could be construed as an alternate feminist manifesto, rallying not only against outdated rules and ‘the man’ but against government, the wealthy and more. The main character, SahebaN, is nearly as clever and feisty as her creator, Fauzia Rafique.

– Heidi Greco
Author of Shrinking Violets

Amidst the clutter of mangos and coconuts that characterizes most disaporic writing, Fauzia Rafique’s work is a breath of fresh air as it addresses pertinent social issues beautifully and poignantly.

– Harsha Walia
Author of Undoing Border Imperialism

The faithful scribe of a world eerily similar to our own, Author Fauzia Rafique skewers human foibles in The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior with the zeal of an archer, and the care of a lepidopterist†. There are few writers more equipped to tackle the intersections of religion, sexuality, politics and feminism, and Rafique deftly handles this tall order with a wink, a smile, and very little consideration for whichever of your prejudices she’s currently shattering.

†One of those disturbed individuals who collects butterflies and impales them on corkboard in the name of science or hobbyism.

– L.P. Wallinger
Author of The Man with the Retrograde Brainstem, and, DINK

Introduction

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex, wrote: ‘All oppression creates a state of war, this is no exception.’ In The Adventures of Saheban, Fauzia Rafique has taken the principle, weaving this fundamental truth through the lives of four women. Saheban, heroine of a popular Pakistani folk story, rebels against her family, refusing an arranged marriage; Saheban, the weaponless Warrior, rebels against a male-dominated society; Ego Feathers is forced to write Saheban’s biography in secret code; and Fauzia, oppressed by rampant sexism in her native country, embarks on a new life in a different country, only to experience further oppression in the guise of racism, and economic disparity. Stumbling across Saheban’s biography, Fauzia cracks Ego Feathers code, ultimately (and hopefully) freeing herself from the chains that have bound her existence.

– Wendy Harris, editor
New Westminster, BC

about the author

Fauzia Zohra Rafique is a South Asian Canadian writer of fiction and poetry, writing in English, Punjabi and Urdu. Her second novel ‘The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior’ is being launched by Libros Libertad in November 2016. She was recognized in 2012 by peer group WIN Canada as ‘Distinguished Poet & Novelist’ for her first novel ‘Skeena’ (Libros Libertad 2011) and the first chapbook of English and Punjabi poems ‘Passion Fruit/Tahnget Phal’ (Uddari Books 2011). Her eBook of poems ‘Holier Than Life’ was published in 2013. Earlier, she edited an anthology of writings of women of South Asian origin, ‘Aurat durbar: The Court of Women’ (Toronto 1995). In Pakistan, Fauzia worked as a journalist and screenwriter.
More about Fauzia is here