Book Review: Cinderella, An Islamic Tale

 📚 Book Review 📚 

Title: Cinderella (An Islamic Tale)

Author: Fawzia Gilani

Genre: Children’s Fiction // Picturebooks

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

As the name suggests, this is the classic story of Cinderella - with an “Islamic” twist. (I write Islamic in quotation marks because just how Islamic the twist is, remains subjective.)

Our heroine in the story is called Zahra… and due to the cinders etc., is given the nickname of Cinderella.

The story itself is nearly the same as the one we all are aware of. Peppered throughout, however, are Quranic verses. Informative for a muslim audience. The story is illustrated beautifully, with dark-skinned protagonists making a welcome change to the usually white-centred beauties in found in fairy tales.

Beyond the superficial plus points, I found this to be a problematic text. It seems to glorify being a martyr. Zahra never complains to her father about her cruel stepmother, because she is “forgiving and patient”. Hardly the message I want to impart if I’m raising confident, assertive children. 

Accepting abuse is consistently equated to “patience” throughout. 

While it is admirable that a fairy tale heroine said all her prayers on time and read the Quran daily, the overall message of being submissive and accepting abuse uncomplainingly in the name of “patience” and Islam really rubbed me the wrong way. 

This will, however, serve as a good base for discussions around the concepts of abuse, patience, and forgiveness. 

As much as I can see the hard work gone into producing this book, I can not, in good conscience, recommend it.

If anyone has read this, I invite you to share your views in the comments section.