Tragic yet beautiful account of Amani’s Story

Thank you for being so strong and vulnerable sharing your story, I cried, I laughed and even reflected on my own family’s history on domestic violence. Hearing your own voice through this audio made it so much for authentic and effective. I hope that there are many changes within our society and government that hopefully prevent tragic events like these happening again. Thank you again for sharing your story.

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Written a and spoken from the heart

Amani has written a deeply felt memoir of love and loss in tragic, violent circumstances. She addresses the root causes of domestic abuse. She provides warnings for others. Amani’s story should be essential reading for men and women. Yet Amani tells her story with deep love for her family and hope for her future. I hope her future is brighter and truly blessed

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Amazing!

What a brilliant piece of work. So honest and raw. A story that shares the heart break and experience many people can relate too.

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Powerful, empowering, and important

I feel honoured to have been able to listen to the author's story. A powerfully presented memoir and one I will think about for a long time and remember always.

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amazing work

this book was an insightful listen it covered topics of feminism more domestic violence trauma and overall a story displaying resilience.

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Brave, Bold

A brave, honest, compassionate, and enlightening telling of experiences we are too quick to choose to ignore.

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A raw perspective of Family Violence

Everyone studying Social Work needs to read this book. After Amani spoke in 2020 at my uni - Western Sydney University about her experience, I knew I wanted to read her book. After studying Family Violence, there is no textbook that comes close to hearing Amani’s story. I feel inspired and privileged to have heard her voice tell her Mothers story, it’s something I will reference and reflect on for some time. Her story is complex, from a court case that had me on the edge of my seat, to the dynamics of culture, gender and family. Amani’s story at its core is about her Mother and Grandmother’s legacy and how she will preserve that through celebrating their lives. While not shying away from the reality of a brutal murder that left her without her Mother. A Mother’s Wound is an extremely eloquent story of Family Violence’s intersectionality and the complex wounds it leaves.

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The raw emotion and the facts.

It brought tears to my eyes. Such a touching story. Society needs to be more proactive in combating the issue of domestic violence. It takes strength to talk about it and to actually leave an abusive relationship. I could relate to it as I left an abusive marriage. It does take its toll on one's health. The perbertrator is left scot free. Sorry is not a word in their vocabulary as that requires introspection into one's actions. A very sad story but an empowering author who is contributing immensely to commence change. This will take a long time but it needs to start now for our future generations to be empowered.

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The Mother Wound - Amani Haydar

Amani’s parents immigrated to Australia from Lebanon in the late 1980’s in the midst of the Lebanese civil war. In 2015 her father brutally murdered her loving mother, Salwa. During this unfathomable loss, Amani was working as a lawyer and 5 months pregnant with her first child. The grief and trauma that goes with becoming a mother whilst loosing your mother (and your father in another sense) is extremely hard to imagine.

In The Mother Wound, Amani shares very personal details of her family life growing up right through to the present day. She covers such a huge range of important topics such as feminism, grief and dealing with trauma, generational trauma, cultural and religious expectations, sexism, gender roles, racism, Islamophobia, domestic violence, the justice system and so much more. She adds social context by using the balance of her lived experience vs. facts, research and statistics (which are all extremely sobering).

Being a lawyer, Amani had a firm understanding of how the justice system worked and her breakdown of the murder trial was extremely interesting. She also talks about the many inadequacies within the legal system and policies relating to criminal justice and victim support. Legislation and support is seldom fit for purpose when dealing with victims and families who are are affected by Domestic Violence. Amani is a passionate advocate for change in these areas and her story highlights the importance of advocacy.

Parts of this memoir were extremely sad whereas others were inspiring. Amani’s mother, Salwa was an educated woman who’s life work was helping others in various job roles. Her tragic murder is difficult to reflect on and Amani talks about this. The guilt and pain that from wondering about the signs of abuse that may have gone unnoticed and the ‘what if’s’.

This memoir is as informative as it is heartbreaking. Amani is an incredibly intelligent and inspiring woman. The whole way through I was in awe of her resilience and ability to move forward while fighting for change and honouring her mother’s legacy.

I have never had so much trouble writing a review. This book is absolutely incredible and I fear I’m not doing it justice here.

I HIGHLY (and I can’t stress this enough) recommend this book. Hands down the most incredible memoir I have ever read.

This is a book that will stick with you for a very long time.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Instagram: @chooksandbooksnz

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Incredible

Simply put, this memoir is a must listen to/must read. With grace and with poetry, Haydar traverses her story, her mother’s story, her grandmothers story and a raft of complex social and cultural and political issues in a way that is both personal and universal. This book is so thoughtfully and greatly written, and it is narrated by the author with a special audio excerpt which I won’t spoil. It is essential listening and I implore everyone to download it.

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