Honor begins with Smita, a journalist of Indian heritage, landing in Mumbai to help out a fellow journalist who injured herself. Shannon needs to go iHonor begins with Smita, a journalist of Indian heritage, landing in Mumbai to help out a fellow journalist who injured herself. Shannon needs to go into surgery but there is a story that she has been working on and the verdict is due any day now. She needed Smita to come to Mumbai and take over the story. Smita's family immigrated to the U.S. when she was 14 after a currently unknown incident forces them to leave their once beloved city.
The story Smita is taking over involves Meena, a Hindu woman who fell in love with a Muslim man. Meena lived at home with her brothers and sister. The girls do woman's work and the men do men's work. Tired of the same old ways Meena and her sister decide to get jobs at the sewing factory. They are the only women in memory that have ever worked out of the home bringing dishonor on the family according to the brothers. Tensions are already high when Meena meets Abdul at work and although reluctantly on Meena's part - they do fall in love in little moments. When it becomes known to the brothers it sparks intense violence against her and Abdul and she runs away from her home and into his arms. They marry and become pregnant when the tension and violence come to a head and Meena and Abdul are beaten and set on fire. Meena and her unborn child survive and Abdul does not.
Everyone knows who committed the crime but will Meena actually get the justice that she and Abdul deserve. Will those who committed the heinous acts of violence actually pay the price when everyone is hardline for Hindus and against Muslims.
There is so much more...caste, poverty, religion, ambition, hope, redemption, and love...
The magic of this novel is the women and the way the story is told will capture you from page 1. My first 5-star rating of 2022.
What happened:
(view spoiler)[ Smita was born Muslim and her father is a professor who teaches religion. It was discovered when Smita was 14 that her family was Muslim and they were threatened. Her family his in a nearly home of a family friend but Smita called, what she thought was a trusted friend, who then betrayed them. The Hindu thugs came and dragged Smita and her brother into the street. They beat her brother and sexually assaulted Smita. Her family was forced to convert to Hinduism to save their lives but shortly after discovered that they were never going to feel safe there. Smita's father applied to jobs in the U.S. and they immigrated.
Meena's brothers burned her and Abdul alive with help and support from RuPaul the village chief. They were found not guilty and then went and found Meena and beat to her actual death.
Mohan and Smita took care of Meena's daughter. Abdul's mother went and worked as a live-in maid at her employer's house relinquishing rights to her granddaughter. Smita was going to go home to the U.S. but ran out of the airport into Mohan's arms.
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