Amal Unbound

As Amal Unbound begins, life for 12-year-old Amal is a happy one. She lives with her parents and three younger sisters on a farm in rural Pakistan, is a star student, and has plans to become a teacher. But when her mother gives birth to a fifth daughter, her life changes forever. Even though Amal’s father loves his daughters, in their world it’s boys who are of real value to a family. Her mother becomes so depressed after failing to provide a son, that her father decides Amal must stay home from school to care for the family until her mother is well. It’s only for a little while, she hopes, and then she’ll be able to return to school. That hope seems gone forever when she talks back to Jawad Khan, the son of a powerful local landlord. He’s so angry he demands that Amal’s father repay the money he owes the Khan family. When her father can’t raise the money, Jawad tells him that Amal must work as an indentured servant in his home until the debt can be repaid. Amal is soon sent to live at the Khan’s luxurious estate and begins a new life as his mother’s personal maid. It’s not long before she realizes that indentured servants can rarely work off their debts and she may never be able to return to her family. But Amal is smart, resourceful, and courageous, and when she discovers what’s really going on in the Khan family, she finds a way to expose the truth.