- Aasiyah Baig
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Dear Book Club,
I went on a road trip out to West Texas to study the light, plants, and the harsh climate that make up the desert landscape. As we drove through the barren land for hours I listened to A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
It’s the story of Zeba, a woman imprisoned in Afghanistan for the alleged murder of her husband — a woman who chooses silence over defense, mystery over explanation. But beyond the plot, what struck me most was how deeply this novel speaks to the invisible forces that shape women's lives — the unspoken rules, the deeply rooted traditions, the quiet power of resistance.
Reading this as an Pakistani woman with the privilege to grow up in the United States it hit differently.
In my mid 20s, my father once told me had I been born in a different family back in Pakistan that I would be an honor killing. This book reminded me of the infinite gratitude I have to being born in a family surrounded by men who believed in women's education, in our right to speak, to dream, to be free.
I was raised with the privilege of support in a culture where, for so many women, that support is rare or nonexistent. Hashimi’s novel reminded me just how sacred that kind of male allyship is — and how vital it is that we don’t take it for granted.
Zeba’s silence is a kind of protection — for herself, for her children, for truths the world isn’t ready to hear. And the women she meets in prison, each locked away for reasons that often have nothing to do with crime, reflect the resilience of women who survive in spite of the odds.
This book doesn’t offer easy answers — just like our identities don’t fit into neat boxes. But it does offer a powerful reminder: that liberation isn’t always loud, and that sometimes the most radical thing a woman can do is simply endure.
With love, Aasiyah
P.S. If you’ve already read this one, reply and let me know what you thought. I’d love to talk about it. And if not — consider this your sign to pick it up.
