12 Posts from 12 Months of Letters from a Muslim Woman
Hello and Salaams, my friends!
How are you all doing? Over at our place, school’s out in 2 more days, we are alternating between the-air-feels-like-soup heat and humidity, and torrential rain. All I want is iced coffee, cherries, and lemonade.
The summer social calendar is upon us too. I fancy myself a social butterfly but even I am ready not to have a different activity every night. As I write this, I am recovering from last night’s neighbourhood block party, and tonight is fun fair at A’s school. It seems almost criminal - sending us out into the heat like this.
Now that I’ve finished venting, onto some exciting news: Letters from a Muslim Woman is 1 year old. I started this newsletter last June as a bit of a dare to myself. I haven’t been able to keep a consistent writing practice since my high school creative writing program, so this was a last ditch effort to try something, anything, to get the creative juices flowing again.
Here we are, 12 months later, with a back catalog of 98 posts, reaching nearly 2000 readers. I appreciate every single one of you for being here. To mark the occasion, I’m sharing a post for each month since I started writing these letters. For the next week, any of the posts included in this roundup will have their paywall down. I hope you enjoy 🥰.
July 2023: From my first month of regular posting - the early struggle of trying to draw the words out is so apparent.
August 2023: An ode to the life at the lake.
September 2023: On self-owns, and learning to stick up for what you need.
October 2023: When even your teachers can’t see past your hijab.
November 2023: One of the few funny things I’ve written.
December 2023: How my trip to the south of Spain opened my eyes to Muslim culture in its various layers.
January 2024: On valuing modesty in an appearance-obsessed world.
February 2024: When the movies you love from your youth don’t love you back.
March 2024: Thoughts on living through Ramadan under genocide and occupation.
April 2024: The meanings and uses of some of our most commonly used phrases.
May 2024: A response to some racist abuse I encountered on Substack.
June 2024: Looking back on Alice Munro and what CanLit means to a daughter of immigrants.
Thank you again for visiting me and reading my words each week. A paid subscription is $5 a month and gives you access to my unfinished letters, published every other week. If you’re enjoying my perspective and want to support me, consider upgrading to help me spend more time on writing and share a voice that isn’t often heard.
If you can’t commit to a monthly subscription, but still want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee below. It helps me more than you realize.
Congratulations on your Substack birthday Noha ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to many many more years!
Whoop! Whoop!