Prone to Hyperbole is becoming Letters from a Muslim Woman

I'm showing up with my whole self here, starting now.

Hello my friends!

When I started this newsletter about 7 months ago, I must admit I was nervous. I’ve tried to write consistently so many times before, and had it fizzle beneath the weight of my responsibilities - a full time office job, a family, sweet boys who have active schedules filled with sports and religious studies and academic enrichment work.

Well, here we are in early 2024 and there are well over 400 of you on this newsletter reading about the multi-generational immigrant experience, mental health, motherhood, and life as a visibly Muslim woman in Canada. That means more to me than you could possibly imagine!

There are quite a few of you who have recently discovered this newsletter. If you’d like a look around, I’ve created a new home page for you here.

I originally called this newsletter Prone to Hyperbole because I was looking for a fun, catchy name that would get your attention. A few months into my writing, I realized that a lot of what I had to say was tied to my experiences as a visible minority, specifically as a Muslim. And so, a new series was born.

In my inaugural post of this series, I wrote, “Many of the layers of my self come with a whole pile of negative assumptions about what I stand for and who I am. It’s an unfortunate truth that while the world loves our food, Arabs and Muslims are stereotyped as uncivilized, backward people, incompatible with modern times.

The more I think about these identities, and the way the world perceives them, the more I am drawn to write about it, to share 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, that colours your experiences and interactions. It touches on small inconveniences, like praying in stairwells and on buses, for lack of another space. And it touches on large injustices, like knowing a community member who’s been disappeared in the war on terror, and fearing the consequences of speaking out.

In Letters from a Muslim Woman, I will share what life is like when walking through the world in this body and soul. I hope you’ll join me.”

I have never been alone enough to take such a stunning singular shot in a mosque. Mosque architecture in incredible. Photo by Avesta Rezaeizadeh on Unsplash

As I continued writing, I realized that I was partitioning the different aspects of my identity each time I wrote to you. I was asking myself, does this writing discuss my Muslim-ness, or not, and then sharing the posts under different headings, either as part of Prone to Hyperbole, or as part of my Letters from a Muslim Woman series.

But here’s the thing: that segmentation came from an implicit fear that some of you may not like the Muslim side of me. That if that side came on too strong or showed too much, you might leave. Many of us third-culture kids know how to code switch, and do it seamlessly, transitioning between our more palatable identities in wider society to our ethnic identities in smaller circles, depending on the circumstances.

I realized recently that all my posts are really Letters from a Muslim Woman. Even if I’m not telling you about our five daily prayers, or explaining what Christmas looks like in a Muslim household. Even if I’m telling you about my anxiety, my pandemic experiences, or the woman at work who stole my name. No matter what I’m writing, I’m still me: an imperfect Muslim hijabi mother, who loves Seinfeld, dad jokes, and halal charcuterie, who’s an impressionable contrarian, who spent years trying desperately to fit in.

And so, I’m renaming this newsletter. You’ll still get the same mix of essays as before — I’m just thinking about things differently and trying to show up with my whole self to the writing.

Thanks for joining me.

Let’s chat in the comments:

1. Are there any specific topics I haven’t explored that you’re curious about? Leave me suggestions in the comments.

2. Do you like the new visuals and title?

3. Have you ever “rebranded”? Yourself or art or business? What was the driver?

What do you think of my snazzy new dividers? This hijabi dresses with the same attention to comfort as I do

I am continuing to share resources, links, and information that I have found helpful regarding the crisis in Gaza and the West bank. This week, I’d like to share this post by

Jasper Diamond Nathaniel

, a Jewish American from Brooklyn who went to the West Bank to bear witness and report on Palestinian life under the occupation. Jasper’s first piece on the topic is linked below. I urge you to read it, and to subscribe to his newsletter for more, as this will be the focus of his writing for the next little while.

Nothing I can say will truly do this piece justice. It is honest, unflinching, and relentless in the documentation of the humiliations and sufferings of Palestinians. I use the word relentless because the pace at which Palestinians are punished, mistreated and abused is relentless. Just… read it. You will be glad you did, if glad can possibly be the right word in this situation.

You Don't Understand How Bad It Is Here