Help! Famous female Indian character needed!

[indianwoman]

It's world book day coming up. I can't afford to buy a costume but I do have an Indian shalwar kameez, you know Indian trousers, tunic and scarf. I need to find a book character to say who it is I'm dressing up as!! Can anyone help please?!!

How about the Bengali author and feminist Rokeya Begum?

The Girl Who Stole An Elephant by Nizrana Farook is set in Sri Lanka. A very cursory Google tells me the salwar kameez is worn by some Sri Lankans.

Malala Yousafzai

https://www.waterstones.com/author/malala-yousafzai/450415

Princess Jasmine from Aladdin

Well the most famous from 'popular' culture are the twins of Harry Potter fame.. Padma and Parvathi Patil :) If not
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-henna-artist/alka-joshi/9780778331476

A search for 'south asian children's books' reveal a lot.

I'm south asian myself btw.

Aouda, Phileas Fogg's love interest in Around the World in 80 Days

This thread seem distasteful. That's all I'm saying.

She was Iraqi 😂

In what way?

She was "Chinese".

No, that was Mulan. Does Arabian Nights give you any clue

The Arabians told stories of exciting adventures in far away lands, like Aladdin, who was from exotic China. Have you never been to a panto?

The clever and resourceful Persis, Detective Inspector in post war Bombay (as it was called then) from the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan.

No, that was Disney's take on the story. Does the phrase "World BOOK Day" give you any clue? 😂 (pass-agg laughing face emoji back to you).

Depressingly very few well known children's books in the English with characters from an Indian background.

Agreed. I love that she was basing her argument that she was Chinese based on a pantomime.

Ah, I thought you'd gone quiet because you'd realised that you'd made an embarrassing mistake, but you apparently still haven't twigged.

As @MalmuteMaggie was pointing out, if you'd read any version of the original book, as opposed to watching the Disney movie, you'd know it's set in China. Not an accurate version of China I grant you, because it's just Arabic shorthand for "a long way away in a mysterious foreign land" but definitely not Baghdad (or even Syria where the original story was probably told).

The pantomime is an accurate adaptation in that, if nothing else, which is why Brits are more likely to know this than Americans.

Lata in A Suitable Boy. Or her mother if you don’t think you can pass for 19!

Lata from A Suitable Boy? She’s Hindu but I think would wear the headscarf etc

Oh I’ve been beaten to it!

Lots of female characters in Brick Lane by Monica Ali

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/brick-lane/characters

Or White Teeth has a British Bangladeshi character, Alsana Begum
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Teeth

Thanks for all these. Am leaning towards Malala as it is also international woman's day on the 8th!

Care to elaborate?

Secondary or primary?

Surely you just find a book character who wears leggings and a t shirt?

I assumed you were an adult teacher dressing yourself?