Sabeena Akhtar

Paperback, 272 pages

9781783529445

 

From modern pop culture to anti-Blackness, faith and family, politics, education, creativity and working life; this anthology gives visibly Muslim women a space to speak. 

 

SPOILER ALERT: We won't be answering the usual questions! Perceived as the visual representation of Islam, hijab-wearing Muslim women are nevertheless rarely afforded a platform on their own terms. Harangued by awkward questions, radical commentators sensationalising our existence, non-Muslims and non-hijabis making assumptions, men speaking on our behalf, or stereotypical norms being perpetuated by the same old faces, hijabis are tired.

 

Cut from the Same Cloth? seeks to tip the balance back in our favour. Here, twenty-one women of all ages and races look beyond the tired tropes, exploring the breadth of our experience and spirituality. It's time we, as a society, stop with the hijab-splaining and make space for the women who know.

 

Essays by Negla Abdalla, Zahra Adams, Sabeena Akhtar, Mariam Ansar, Fatima Ahdash, Shaista Aziz, Suma Din, Khadijah Elshayyal, Ruqaiya Haris, Raisa Hassan, Fatha Hassan, Sumaya Kassim, Rumana Lasker Dawood, Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan, Asha Mohamed, Sofia Rehman, Yvonne Ridley Aisha Rimi, Khadijah Rotimi, Sophie Williams, Hodan Yusuf. 

 

Contents

 

- I am Not an Answer, I am the Question

- Hidden

- On Therapy

- Dirty Melanin, Precious Melanin: Bilal Was Black

- COVID-19 and Recalibrating My Ramadan Reality

- The Quest for Modesty in the Digital Age

- 'Arabic-Speaking': Liberal Racism and Translating Trauma in the Human-Rights Sector

- The Gift of Second Sight

- Youth in the Time of Madrassahs

- 4,091 Miles Way from Home

- Waiting to Exhale: The Scarcity of Safe Spaces

- A Cartography of Motherhood

- Growing into Hijab

- Grenfell

- Smile

- The Global Revolution of Hijab

- Racial Perceptions

- Ticking the 'Intelligence' Box

- So I Can Talk to Guys Now?

- Riot, Write, Rest: On Writing as a Muslimah