Zarina Patel: An Indomitable Spirit

Book excerpt: Zarina Patel is a writer, artist, human rights and race relations activist, environmentalist and campaigner for social justice. She is a leading authority on Kenyan South Asian history, and editor of the journal Awaaz, which focuses on South Asian history and culture in the national context. The book chronicles Zarina's multi-dimensional life. Although she was born and raised in an upper middle class family, she rejected opulence and sought personal liberty and fullfillment by identifying with multi-ethnic and multi racial groups that were struggling for human rights and freedom from exploitation and domination in Kenya. Additionally, her multi-dimensional life bears witness to the harsh realities that women in African and Asian communities face: the lack of independence to choose whom to marry, whether to have children, adherence to a particular religion, to name a few. Her dissent liberated her from the shackles of patriarchal Asian society, but also drew her to Kenyans of similar character and thinking. Zarina's biography echoes the lives of many women around the world playing a multitude of roles - as wives, mothers and professional women - who have struggled and have had to give up part of their dreams in order to succeed in each of these roles.