Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah (2027 to 2030)

New syllabus (first HSC 2027). This text is prescribed for the 2027 to 2030 HSC under the English Standard 11-12 (2024) syllabus (focus area: Language, identity and culture). The play also appeared on the 2019 to 2026 list, in English Standard Module A: Language, Identity and Culture and EAL/D Module B, in the same Currency Press 2010 edition. Sitting the 2026 HSC? See the 2019 to 2026 text list.

Why this text suits the focus area

Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah is an Australian play by Alana Valentine about an aunt and her niece. Both are devout Muslims. The younger woman, Shafana, wants to begin wearing a headscarf, and her aunt, Sarrinah, tries to dissuade her. For Sarrinah the hijab stands for a world she has escaped. For Shafana it is a personal statement of renewed faith. The play's heart is one relationship, so the question it poses is what you do when you profoundly disagree with someone you love. That makes it a natural fit for language, identity and culture: each woman uses language to defend a version of herself, and each is also spoken about by a wider society.

Who is in the play, and its form

The play is built around two women, Shafana and her aunt Sarrinah, and Currency Press lists the cast as two female roles. Currency Press also says Valentine has written about her practice as a close work or verbatim theatre maker; that describes her work in general, so do not assume anything about how this script was made. Treat it as a crafted script: choices about order, emphasis and whose speech follows whose produce the meaning. Ask how each woman's position is built up, where the two collide and where they come close to understanding each other, and check in your copy how far the wider society is heard at all.

Because it is a play, think about performance as well as text. Consider how speech is staged between two people, how one character's view is revealed through the other's reaction, and the effect of watching a disagreement unfold rather than reading about it. Check any claim about direct address, doubling or structure against the published script in your own edition, and do not rely on an account of one production.

Analytic section 1: the headscarf as symbol

The central object is the headscarf. Show how the play separates what it means to the woman who chooses it from what it means to the woman who left that world behind, and from what outsiders assume. A strong response explains that the meaning is contested and that the drama stages that contest through two people, not a debate between abstractions.

Analytic section 2: two positions held by people who love each other

The generational conflict is the engine of the play. Aunt Sarrinah and Shafana share a faith and a family, yet they read the same piece of cloth in opposite ways. Show how the dialogue lets each position be reasonable on its own terms, so the audience cannot simply side with one woman. Link this to language: the way each woman talks about herself differs from the way she is talked about, and affection and disagreement sit in the same lines.

What each woman wants, and what each risks

The publisher's description gives the two positions plainly. The publisher says that for Sarrinah the hijab represents a world she has escaped, and that for Shafana it is a personal statement of renewed faith. Sarrinah tries to dissuade her niece. Ask in your own reading what each woman wants from the other and what each risks. Use this to build a precise argument: the conflict is about who has the authority to say what a piece of cloth means, which is a question about language, identity and culture as well as faith.

Reading a two-hander

In a play for two performers, every entrance, silence and interruption does work. When you study your copy, track where the women speak to each other, where either speaks to the audience, and where one stays quiet while the other is heard. Note how the stage directions and the order of scenes, as printed in the Currency edition, shape sympathy. Name the technique, such as dialogue, contrast, repetition or an exchange that reverses a power balance, and then state its effect on what the audience understands.

Analytic section 3: audience and address

Ask how the dramatic choices position the audience, for example by inviting recognition, discomfort or reflection, and name the particular techniques in your copy that do so. Avoid saying the play simply preaches.

Context as a driver of argument

The publisher notes that the cultural meaning of the hijab has become a wedge between generations, and that wearing one carries a complex array of historical and contemporary meanings. Use that to explain why the quarrel matters, and keep the discussion tied to dramatic technique.

Common pitfalls

• Treating the play as a debate essay rather than a staged work.
• Speaking for all Muslim women. The play itself resists that.
• Retelling scenes without naming a technique and an effect.

Essay scaffold

Introduction. Thesis: the play shows identity as shaped by who speaks and who is spoken about, using the quarrel of an aunt and her niece to challenge stereotype.

Body 1. The headscarf as a contested symbol, with attention to what it means to Shafana, to Sarrinah and to outsiders.

Body 2. Two positions held by people who love each other, and how the dialogue keeps both reasonable.

Body 3. Staging, address and the audience's position.

Conclusion. Argue that the play lets two devout women hold opposing readings of one piece of cloth without either becoming a stereotype, so the audience is left to judge how identity is shaped by who speaks and who is spoken about. Say whether the script resolves the quarrel, and which scene shows that most clearly.

Read the text

The play is in copyright. Borrow a copy from your school or local library, or buy the published script (Currency Press) from a bookseller. NESA sets the Currency Press edition (2010, ISBN 9780868198828).

Sources

• NESA, HSC English prescriptions (checked 7 October 2026, year 2026).
• Currency Press, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah (publisher description).
• NESA, English Standard Year 12 content pages: page 1, page 2 (prescription lists, checked 7 October 2026).