Unveiled

Esther Ahmad grew up in Pakistan believing the only way to win her Muslim father's love was to volunteer for a suicide mission. In her view, a martyr's death would secure a place in paradise for her family, and she was ready to give her life for it.

God, however, had other plans for her. Her story follows a path out of Pakistan and away from hopelessness toward faith, from a sense of shame toward a new sense of purity, and from fear of Allah's anger toward the embrace of a Father who loves her.

In this memoir, Ahmad looks closely at societies where women have few rights and little standing or voice. She argues that the way Muslim women are treated follows from Islamic teaching, and she illustrates her points with personal experiences. She also sets claims in the Qur'an beside what she discovered in the Bible. Rather than offering a purely academic comparison, the book asks what a woman is actually worth.