1/3/2024 0 Comments Shamyla this american life![]() They said that wasn't terribly difficult. And what's interesting is just how quickly the program kind of took on a mind of its own.Īt first, they said the computer really did generate very typical, kind of predictable inspirational quotes. So Jesper and Peder set out to program a computer to create these to generate inspirational sentences and paste them onto stock photos of beaches, and starry nights, and people staring into the distance. The secret to getting ahead is getting started. After all, they're so formulaic- every day might not be a good day, but there's good in every day. Shamyla hopes to find love – and to marry, like Little Women.Could make an inspirational quote. Every year on her birthday, she reads the corresponding chapter number (corresponding to her age) of Little Women to see if has any predictive value.” Although she suffered severe culture shock and required much therapy, 30 years later she is now a therapist who specializes in trauma cases. “As she flew away, however, Shemyla knew she would never return. Shamyla had succeeded so well in convincing them she had turned that they were willing to take the chance. Then, to make sure she acquired certain skills that would increase her bride price (like being able to swim and to drive), they sent her back to America to live with her adoptive parents. Instead, they settled on a 30-year-old man. This only served to panic her parents, who would have been horrified by the relationship between Jo and Laurie. “Figuring that the only way she could escape her life was to get married, she began a correspondence with a friend’s brother, whom her friend said would treat her well. When she was forbidden to write, she would go into the bathroom and write secretly before carefully washing the ink off the paper. “Shemyla even had her own version of Jo writing stories in the attic, although her situation was more severe. Not surprisingly, Shemyla identified with the ambitious, rule-breaking Jo, which helped her hold on to the identity her family was trying to squash. “As the interviewer notes, Little Women functioned as both a “how-to” book and a survival guide. As her own parents would dress her up and show her off to other families in the hope that she would be able to marry up, she identified with the “Meg Goes to Vanity Fair” chapter. At other times, she saw scenes she could relate to. Sometimes she saw things that she fantasized about, such as Meg and Jo’s relationship (she didn’t have someone comparable to confide in). “She had multiple responses to Alcott’s novel. “It was the book of my life, the only book I had to escape,” she says. Whenever the family left the house, she would grab whichever section of the book came to hand and read it. To hide it, she broke it into eight sections so that it wouldn’t show under the mattress. “Through a friend, however, she obtained a copy of Little Women, which she remembered reading while still in America. Books that she smuggled into the house were invariably confiscated. “At one point, her father determined that women shouldn’t write and burned her stories in front of her. Her hair had to be covered, she couldn’t make eye contact with others, she was not allowed to speak English or Urdu, she had to eat after her brothers (one of whom sexually abused her), she was kept on small portions (so that she would stay slim), and she was occasionally beaten. ![]() Shemyla’s books and cassettes were confiscated, she was kept under virtual house arrest, and she was regularly lectured on what her wifely duties would entail, including her sexual duties. “Imagine an early adolescent raised in suburban Maryland suddenly finding herself in an ultra-traditional Pakistani family, with all the expectations about a woman’s subordinate status and a woman’s reputation. As the original arrangement had never been formalized, the adoptive parents could do nothing. When the adoptive parents went on to have two sons, however, Shemyla’s birth parents kidnapped her on a 1989 trip to Pakistan when she was 11. “As is apparently sometimes the custom in Pakistan, Shemyla was given by a younger sister to her elder when the latter, living in America, appeared incapable of having children. ![]() Shemyla’s life was saved, literally, by a book written by Louisa May Alcott and published 150 years ago, in 1869.Īs recounted by Robin Bates, in his blog *: This is about Shemyla, recounted in a recent episode titled “The Weight of Words”. If you visit the podcast website, you can find all 700 episodes, each of them comprising a fascinating story. Ira Glass is the founder of This American Life, a podcast about great stories. Words Matter: How Little Women Saved Shemyla ![]()
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