Unworthy creature

"The memoir of a South Asian immigrant to Canada, whose formative years in India were steeped in a reigning culture of honour and shame, in which the burden of the family's good standing rests on the sexual purity of girls and women. The book traces the author's lonely, poignant, often risk-charged struggle to free herself from the oppressive code. As well, the book chronicles her courageous battle to help other South Asian girls and women in Canada step out of their kinsmen's ancient patriarchal cycle and claim their gender rights as fully equal Canadian citizens. After immigrating to Canada as a young wife in an arranged, loveless marriage, with two young children and the equivalent of a third grade education, Aruna slowly awoke to the the rights and protections Canada offered women. She embarked on an often frightening, but empowering psychological and intellectual journey that would ultimately lead to two graduate degrees, a second, loving and mutually respectful marriage, and a pioneering career in counselling troubled families like her own, as well as training frontline workers who deal with them."--Provided by publisher.