Welcome to Letters from a Muslim Woman, where I share the joys and challenges of being a visibly Muslim woman in a sometimes-unfriendly world. Here I explore the multi-generational immigrant experience, mental health, faith, and motherhood.
Maybe you’re curious about what it’s like to belong to a group of “others”. A group that is misunderstood whether willfully or subconsciously. Being a member of this group is something that affects your everyday. It touches on small inconveniences, like praying in stairwells and on buses. And it touches on large injustices, like watching a genocide unfold that kills members of your community, or knowing someone who’s been disappeared in the war on terror, and fearing the consequences of speaking out.
What to expect
Free subscribers will one to two pieces a month, mostly poetry and personal essays, but I have started experimenting with video as well.
Paid subscribers will get all the pieces sent to free subscribers, as well as my unfinished letters series twice a month.
Unfinished letters are where I delve into the deeper stuff - Islamophobia, perfectionism, hypocrisy, whatever is on my mind whether it’s polished and resolved or still tender and unvarnished.
Posts typically go out on Tuesday mornings, whether free or paid, but I reserve the right to randomly land in your inbox, when the muse moves me.
If you aren’t in a position to take out a paid membership, but would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee below or simply share this post with a friend. It helps me more than you realize.
Who am I?
I’m a second-generation Muslim Canadian of Egyptian heritage, Ottawa born and raised. I’m a writer, a mother, a wife, a visible minority, IT analyst by day, and poet and essayist by night.
Below is my first poem, written in 3rd grade.
Smartie on the Sunny Beach
Hot! Hot! I’m turning red!
If I don’t go, I’ll soon be dead!
My body’s hot and so’s my head!
Help! Help! Dying - dead.
