You wouldn’t know my secret by looking at me. You wouldn’t see me walking down the street and give me that knowing nod of understanding. Because, honestly, you can’t tell that I’m a Muslim. I’m a middle-aged woman (first time I wrote that out… ouch), born and raised in the…
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[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”from Buzzfeed:”] Great roundup of books on Muslim life- books for people interested in any genre. You can check out even more books by/for/on Muslims in our Culture: Books section! The list of “Books to Read” goes on and on. Here are some additional suggestions by…
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It began as a project for MTVDesi in 2013: comedienne Radhika Vaz and writer/performer Nadia Manzoor debuted the humorous musings of two hijabi Brooklyn implants, Shagufta and Fatima, in a show called “Shugs & Fats.” The project is now a web-based series highlighting their “quest to reconcile their long held…
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Muslim women often find themselves ensnared by stereotypes. This is particularly true of those donning a headscarf — others commonly view them as terrorists, religious fundamentalists and fanatics. They can be seen as anti-American, un-American and foreigners. And, they are frequently mistaken as weak, meek, uneducated, oppressed and powerless. But,…
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I’m not able to be a “good Muslim wife”. In fact, I’m not able to be in a conventional marriage at all. I’m asexual, aromantic, and sex-averse. Asexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by experiencing little or no sexual attraction to any person1. Aromanticism means that I do not experience…
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My passion is service-based interfaith activism: working with people from different faith traditions on community service projects or other meaningful activities that build social capital. Who are you? I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness (small sect in Christianity) in a very interesting but unstable family. We moved around a…
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I have been Olympic Weightlifting for four years, and participating in Crossfit for two. I launched my website LiftingCovered.com to document my experiences weightlifting in U.S. national competitions. Who Are you? I was born in Kansas City but my family comes from the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa region of Pakistan. I…
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The first creative writing piece I workshopped in undergrad told the story of a Pakistani engineering student who rebuilds her father’s mystical gulab jamun machine and saves Manhattan from a gang of neo-Nazis and their patrons on Wall Street. It was narrated by her friend, an insecure Muslim Iranian Dominican…
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“Honey, don’t get me wrong, but maybe it’s better if you remove these Arabic words from above your door for a while,” my 70-year-old neighbor softly advised me as she was leaving my house. I must have given her a puzzled look because she explained, “Crazy things are happening in…
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When I first began writing a story whose protagonist was the victim of date rape, my intention was to clarify that any social stigmas attached to such a woman are unjust and outlandish. In my naivety, I thought that these stigmas only existed in conservative cultures where marriage within the…
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