Through Ramatoulaye’s reflections, Bâ highlights the institution of marriage as a structural symbol of the patriarchal system, in which asymmetrical gender relations are maintained and projected as part of the Islamic doctrine. Continue reading So Long a Letter; So Long a History | Mariama Bâ, Muslimness, and Women’s Rights
“When we choose to love we choose to move against fear-against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect-to find ourselves in the other.” Continue reading bell hooks on Love
This may all seem too idealistic to some but nonetheless conveys a crucial message about the role of the artist and what cultural and literary representations can offer in the ongoing debates about the so-called “problem” of Muslims in the Anglophone North Atlantic. Continue reading The Year of the Middle Eastern Reading Challenge + Unapologetically Muslim Reading Challenge? Yes, please.
“Happiness,” Woolf writes, “is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent.” Continue reading George Eliot & Virginia Woolf on Happiness
To deal with the sense of ambivalence and confinement, I read. Reflecting back on my refuge in books, yes, I needed comfort and escape, but I was essentially trying to make sense of the turmoil not by watching the news but by reading. Continue reading Comfort Reads: What to Read in Troubling Times | Part II
When I found out that I was reviewing “Muslim” for World Literature Today, I was elated. And you can read about why in my review in the summer issue of World Literature Today. Continue reading Read My Review on World Literature Today: Zahia Rahmani
Migrant writer Aglaja Veteranyi once wrote that “[her] father says you remember the smell of your country no matter where you are but only recognize it when you’re far away.” Continue reading Leila Aboulela: Home, The Nile & Roasted Watermelon Seeds
meditations on home, belonging & all things literary 