S.J. Sharif · The Woman Behind the Icon
S.J. SHARIF Follow the launch
The Woman Behind the Icon by S.J. Sharif, hardcover in dusty rose with rose-gold foil

The new book · S.J. Sharif

The Woman Behind the Icon

11 reflections through the eyes of a friend

Eleven reflections on the woman people see, and the woman a close friend knows.

See the gift box Follow the launch

Two books, one keepsake to give.

The Woman Behind the Icon & Oh, Me?

One book to read and one journal to write in, presented together in a ribbon-pull box with a rose-gold pen and a bookmark.

See what's inside

The Journal

And one to write in.

Oh, Me?

A guided reflective journal

For every woman with a dream worth finishing. Open it and turn through the first pages.

Cover

A look at the first pages of Oh, Me?

The Gift Box

Made to be given.

Both books in one blush keepsake box with engraved tulips and the S.J. Sharif butterfly. Pull the satin tab to open it.

  • The Woman Behind the Icon11 reflections through the eyes of a friend
  • Oh, Me?A guided reflective journal
  • Rose-gold penFor your first page
  • Keepsake bookmarkWith the butterfly emblem
Be first to know
Shairin Sharif seated in a beige armchair

The Author

Shairin Sharif

Before anything else, let me just say that I’m a Gemini. I think that alone says a lot.

I’m a strange mixture of many things. Made my parents proud when I was called to the bar at Middle Temple, UK. I practised as a litigator. It was a brief stint. Then somehow, life had other plans. Many of them.

I have since moved through courtrooms, corporate corridors, hospital wards, grand ballrooms, and recently signed myself up for F&B. Still not entirely sure how that happened. Actually, I do. Thanks to my husband. It all started when someone dared him, and yes, with zero background, we ventured into the unknown territory. Scary yet fulfilling. The amount of food tasting I have done is enough to make me look like I never said no to a single plate. I didn’t.

Each world had its own language. Each chapter has its own cost. What connected them was never the title or the room. It was always the people. The ones who revealed everything. The ones who concealed even more. Somewhere along the way, I learnt to listen to both. That listening eventually became writing.

Being a wife and a mother to my boys gave my life wholeness. Coco, my cat, on the other hand, has the absolute pleasure of being a typical Alpha British Short Hair, utterly unapologetic as if he’s doing me a favour.

And then I wrote a book. Not because I planned to. But because I needed to.

The Woman Behind The Icon is a friendship portrait of Malaysia’s Biduanita Negara, Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin, told through a decade of close friendship. I thought I was writing about her. What I didn’t see coming was how three years of observing someone who has truly made peace with who she is would make me reveal parts of myself I hadn’t been ready to see. The woman staring back had a name. I call her the Lady in Yellow. She visits every woman who dares to begin something that matters. She sits across from you uninvited. She asks the questions you have been most afraid to answer.

This book is what happened when I finally looked her in the eye. And if there is one thing I have carried from every courtroom, every hospital ward, every learning space, every restaurant, every chapter this life handed me, it is this.

Make peace with yourself and start from there.

Best,Shairin Sharif