Shabanu Daughter Of The Wind Analysis

Gender Expectations in the Desert Suzanne Fisher Staples wrote the book Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind about the life of a young desert girl in Pakistan. Shabanu and her family raise camels for a living, and they are prepping for their oldest daughters wedding. In the book, they have to overcome all the obstacles that life throws at them including death, heartbreak, and weather. Shabanu was constantly fighting the cultural norms, and proved to be a strong willed woman. Throughout Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind Staples develops the idea that women are expected to live up to higher standards than men. Many women in Pakistan are expected to be obedient to the men. In the beginning, Shabanu had to obey her father’s rules no matter the circumstance. “He scampers away, I am about to follow when Dadi turns and grabs me by the arms. ‘Don’t ever disobey me,’ he says, shaking me so hard…” (Staples 27). This validates how women in this culture must obey their fathers otherwise they will face harsh punishments. Then, once a woman is married she will have to obey her husband. “She dips her head and drinks, her first act of obedience to her husband” (Staples 222). This claims that women must obey their husbands from the get go. Phulan was showing …show more content…
When she was younger, she was expected to obey her father, marry her cousin, and work with the camels. As the book progressed and Shabanu got older, her expectations changed. She was now expected to learn to obey her husband, marry a 50-year-old man that bought her hand in marriage, and do housework. Shabanu was constantly defying the gender expectations in her culture, which caused her to have a few problems in life. Every culture in the world has a different way of life. People should learn about them and ponder whether they could live like that. Works Cited
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. Random House Children's Books,