Emina Ashman

A MESSAGE FROM THE WRITER - The Premise of "Make Me A Houri"
 

Make Me A Houri is a poetic expression of what I call my ‘siren years.’ A time that teemed with pain, fear, fascination and faith. Moving from Malaysia to Melbourne in 2012 and losing my dad four weeks after drastically transformed me as a woman and my relationship to life itself. It informed the questions I now pose in this play. Having an esoteric Sufi spiritual leader for a father generated metaphysical questions about life, death, truth and certainty within me from an early age. I think that’s a natural tendency when you grow up with incense, sacred geometry and trance all around you. 

 

Make Me A Houri is a personal meditation on re-defining and re-imagining the dimensions of my own faith. When my father, the strongest anchor in my world, had passed on, I felt like a restless mermaid in Melbourne, on the cusp of womanhood, questioning my faith and finding sanctuary within darkness. I wrote this play as a way of honouring that voice that longed to be heard, and wanted to be felt, as she undulated between heaven and earth during that time of mourning. Make Me A Houri expresses that mystical and sensual journey and the relationships that have been an integral part of it. This text is a sacred and poetic dance of discovering beauty, intimacy and the depths of human connection.  

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