Imagination has little room in Sarah Aboobacker’s novels and short stories. Her protagonists are primarily women, victims of societal exploitation – real life, flesh and blood entities. “My characters are not fictional. I depict those in real life. They are mostly women who are victims of societal norms, exploited and belong to Muslim and Hindu community,” says Sarah, Kannada novelist, and recipient of several awards, including the Central Sahitya A kademi and the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi. A votary of women’s cause and communal amity, Sarah was in Kozhikode recently. Sarah’s depiction of Sunaina the protagonist in her novel ‘Panjara’ sums up the sentiments close to her heart. Her works include translations such as ‘Tandaya Nenapugalu’ (Memoirs of Eachara Warrier), ‘Manomi’ (Kamala Das) and ‘Bale’ (B.M. Suhara). On the recent Supreme Court judgment stipulating compulsory registration of marriages and its likely impact on the Muslim community Sarah is forthright. “It is a good decision. I have advocated this demand for years. Despite laws, women, especially from the lower segments, are exploited. Now they can at least go to court and get their rights addressed,” she says.

She says that communities are getting compartmentalised and communal harmony is at stake, of late.

“Women in Karnataka are shackled by religious stipulations when compared to their counterparts here. But I feel saddened that despite their high literacy level, women in Kerala are yet to respond vociferously to public causes. They cannot afford to be passive. “When I look back, my mother Zainabi, who was not educated, was liberal and reacted against any exploitation without hesitation. That is what is missing now.”

Her first novel ‘Chandragiriya Theeradalli’ (On the banks of Chandragiri), written in 1984, has been translated into many languages and also provided the story for a film in Tamil that bagged an award.

Maleeha Raghaviah

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