It's Published!

It's a bit of a whirlwind as Love, Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women was published today. My story makes up only a small 4% of the the 25 stories within the pages - but goodness, are those stories amazing as a collection. I just finished reading the book this week and I'm in awe. The book was featured in the New York Times today and the book is #213 of all books at Amazon!

Also today - I was profiled.

 Why were you drawn to this project?

As a South Asian girl in America, I was inundated with images of white people beauty and white people love stories on the big screen. At home, I was raised in a strict Bangladeshi Muslim household where the message was no dating, and when I got married it would be arranged to a Bangladeshi Muslim man. At school, while my friends went to school dances with dates, I was the perpetual wallflower who was never asked out. My perspectives on lust and love were in turn shaped by racialized concepts of beauty and orthodox familial pressures. I didn’t see examples of passionate love stories with Muslim, brown-skinned women nor did I think it was even possible. The best example I had was Jasmine from the movie Aladdin, and that princess was hardly an example to live up to.

It wasn’t until I was well into my twenties that I fell in love (multiple times) and found faith in my own way.  I was drawn to sharing my story in Love Inshallah because I wanted girls to realize that Muslim women are strong, beautiful, and passionate. That Muslim women can love, lust, wreak beautiful havoc and struggle to find their deen all in the same breath. I hope that this book can be that beacon of inspiration and dreams for some other girl out there.

 You can read the rest of the interview at the book's website right here! And be sure to pick up the Love, Inshallah at a book store near you today!