Five months pregnant at the time, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents’ relationship. They had been unhappy for so long – should she have known that it would end like this?
A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.
In addition, there was the weight of familial and cultural context – her parents were brought together in an arranged marriage, her mother 13 years her father’s junior.
Her grandmother was also brutally killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon, adding complex layers of intergenerational trauma.
“The book is really a memoir and delves into the themes of grief, losing control and resilience,” she said.
“From giving evidence at my father’s trial and being a witness to the legal proceedings, before becoming involved in advocacy and activism, to now finally being able to share my story in a way that feels meaningful; it’s been a journey.”
An Archibald Prize finalist in 2018 for a self-portrait of herself holding a photo of her mother who in turn, holds a photo of her mother, Amani says she has been doing a lot of storytelling through her art and writing as she works to tend other women’s wounds while trying to heal her own.
“I’m proud of the book as it’s a way to preserve my mother’s and grandmother’s stories and help to honour their lives which is part of everything I do,” she said.
’The Mother Wound’ is out now through Pan Macmillan.
