A patchwork shawl - Shamita Das Dasgupta

A Patchwork Shawl
sheds light on the lives of a segment of the U.S. immigrant population
that has long been relegated to the margins.
It focuses on women's
lives that span different worlds:
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the
United States.
This collection of essays by and about South Asian women
in America challenges stereotypes by allowing women to speak in their
own words. Together they provide discerning insights into the
reconstruction of immigrant patriarchy in a new world, and the
development of women's resistance to that reconstruction. Shamita Das
DasGupta's introduction also acquaints readers with the psychological
topography of the South Asian community.

A
Patchwork Shawl considers topics from re-negotiation of identity to
sexuality, violence to intimacy, occupations to organizing within the
community. The essays bear witness to women's negotiations for
independent identities, their claim to their own bodies, and the right
to choose relationships based on their own histories and truths. They
bring new understanding to the intersection of gender, ethnicity, race,
sexuality, and class.