'I am from a family of strong women.'
Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.
After her mother's death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents' relationship. They had been unhappy for so long - should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.
Amani also had to reckon with the weight of familial and cultural context. Her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother thirteen years her father's junior. Her grandmother was brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.
Writing with grace and beauty, Amani has drawn from this a story of female resilience and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. In
The Mother Wound, she uses her own strength to help other survivors find their voices.
AWARDS-
Short-listed for Queensland Literary Awards Non-fiction Book Award 2022.
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Winner for National Biography Award 2022.
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Short-listed for NSW Premier's Literary Awards the Multicultural NSW Award 2022.
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Short-listed for Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime 2022.
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Short-listed for NSW Premier's Literary Awards the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction 2022.
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Winner for Sydney Music, Arts & Culture (SMAC) Awards 2022.
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Winner for Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-fiction 2022.
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Long-listed for Walkley Book Award 2022.
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Winner for Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2022.
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Short-listed for ABIA Biography of the Year 2022.
About the AuthorAmani Haydar is an artist, lawyer, mum and advocate for women's health and safety based in Western Sydney. Amani's writing and illustrations have been published in
ABC News Online and
SBS Life and her self-portrait
Insert Headline Here was a finalist in the 2018 Archibald Prize. Amani uses visual art and writing to explore the personal and political dimensions of abuse, loss, identity and resilience.