Amal Unbound is a book about a girl’s fight for education and knowing her rights. The story is a take on problems many people in real life, even today, must face. The main character is a young woman named Amal. One of the things she wants most is to have a good education, but unfortunately, she is a girl. Girls don’t have as many opportunities as boys to read and study. They have smaller libraries at school than the boys do and are expected to help their family even if they have school that day, since people believe a woman's education is not as important as a man’s. They are also expected to quit their education when needed by their family, or if they’re married, their husband and children, limiting their rights to an education.
When Amal’s mother is expecting a baby, as the eldest daughter, she must stop going to school and help her mother with her younger sisters. This affects her greatly, as her dream is to become a teacher someday, and wants more than anything to go back to school and continue to learn. At first, she protested against having to stay, but her requests to leave were ignored since she must tend to her duties as the eldest daughter in her family. This is taking away her rights, as she has to stay at home even though she doesn’t want to. After the baby’s birth, Amal must still take care of her younger sisters, Seema, Safa, and Rabia while her mother recovers from the newborn child’s birth.
As if her struggle to have an education, having to attend to her duties as the eldest daughter, and having to help her mother weren’t enough, she gets in trouble with a local landlord named Jawad Sahib after an accident. Jawad Sahib later came over to her house, requesting that her family repay their debt. Jawad Sahib takes Amal to live in his house to work her debt away. The book shows her being given over to Jawad Sahib until she can pay off the debts by working. In the story, it shows that the debt overcomes her rights, as Jawad Sahib owns Amal until the debt is paid.
The book's themes are shown to be about a fight for education and rights as the book continues. Amal has to live in Jawad Sahib’s house and must serve Jawad Sahib’s mother, Nasreen Baji. Her rights are ignored, as she must stay in that house and cannot visit her family unless given permission. Her determination for better education grows, even when needed to serve Nasreen Baji and possibly forever indebted, she still shows a growing passion for her education.
Amal, with a few friends, eventually finds a way to help her get books when she discovers a library on the estate. Later on, Amal teaches a younger servant, Fatima, how to recognize the alphabet, read, and write despite the risks of being caught by Jawad Sahib, who would punish them all for reading. This continues the theme of education, as she helps others pursue theirs. She finds out that Nasreen as well has her rights limited. Amal soon learns that even the most powerful people can’t have too much freedom as their status and reputation limit their rights.
The book is about a girl wanting her rights and education. The theme of pursuing rights and education is a reality for many people today. These stories helped inspire this book, shown in the author’s note at the end of Amal Unbound:
“There are brave girls all over the world. They may feel afraid sometimes, like Amal. But doing the right thing despite the risks it may involve is the bravest thing there can be. It is my hope this story shines a light on brave girls everywhere.” - Aisha Saeed
In my opinion, I found the book to include thoughtful themes and a continuous storyline. However, I have not found the story itself to be as intriguing as I had first thought it to be in the beginning. It seemed to lack action in this area of the story. Although it had a continuous storyline throughout the book, it seemed to lack much suspense after a while as not many conflicts seemed to show up. Despite my hesitance in the first few chapters, it becomes quite impelling in later chapters as she faces more conflicts and comes to a conclusive ending where she is finally reunited with her family once more. I found Amal was easy to relate to in terms of character and feeling and shows much more character development in the near end. This book is ideal for readers who enjoy stories with a fight for education as a lesson. The writing was very clear and if you enjoy realistic fiction books or a story of protest, this is the book for you.