Best Selling Author Sikeena Karmali
My Story
The Sultan was so engrossed by Sherazade’s story that, breaking his vow of vengeance on all womankind, he allowed her to live another day…
Sikeena is a writer, historian and cultural critic who engages passionately with historical narratives that leave out the stories of the marginalised. She writes to capture the tales of human lives, of feeling and passion, joy and tragedy, loss and love that the great sweeping narratives of history leave out.
Having been trained as a cultural theorist and a historian, it has always baffled her that historical accounts give us facts and analysis but leave out the stories of the people who lived during those times.
She writes as an antidote to the frantic, media-obsessed, reality of 21st-century life.
Her research is in many ways quite scholarly and properly historical – but then she will notice a building or a photograph or painting, hear a song or read a poem that completely transports her to another time, and it is this that she aims to capture in her writing; some people call it cultural history.
Sikeena worked in international development and human rights for a number of years – primarily in Muslim majority cultures in the Middle East, including Egypt, Palestine and Syria; Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; as well as the Indian subcontinent.
Published Books
Academic papers
Best Sellers
Writing for publications
…the arabesque is a
metaphor for the invisible
While living and working in Central Asia, she travelled to the subcontinent – that land that was known as Hindustan before partition, regularly for relief breaks. Coming from Central Asia and landing in Delhi, it is impossible not to be struck by the echoes of one civilization on another – visible in everything from architecture, to music, language and poetry, cuisine and aesthetics.
Seeking these continuities has allowed her to find resonances between seemingly unaligned worldviews, confirming what so many of the great faiths have professed – that we are indeed a single, interconnected human family.
This is what history has taught her and this is what she seeks to share with the world through her writing. Sikeena writes for people who are curious about the world, especially the past and how it informs the present.
Her storytelling is also advocacy, as she seeks to unearth the stories of women who are unrepresented in the pages of historical annals. In this way she hopes to make spaces – cultural, history and literary, where women can have a voice in the telling of world history.
Sikeena tells stories about emotions, of the inner worlds that we keep hidden away. So, if you are someone who is interested in mapping the world by turning inwards, someone who is drawn towards those invisible metaphors that lie just under the surface of everyday artefacts, then her novels may speak to you.
….Can it be?
Will you ever forget?
How long before
your heart can blaze with joy.
Tell me.
I’ve got an eternity.
Rebirth, Sikeena Karmali