6 Books to Celebrate Muslim Women’s Day

March 27 2020
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In the small Ohio town in which I grew up,
there were pockets of diversity and communities of Indo-Pakistani people that I
met through my mosque, but at my schools I was often the only non-white kid
apart from my siblings. After 9/11, our community was attacked and our mosques
were vandalized. We faced Islamophobia regularly, as did many Muslim-Americans
around the country. It’s been almost two decades since that horrific event, but
unfortunately the stereotypes and negative sentiments still persist. The emergence
of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS further perpetuated the biases. But
the truly frustrating thing is that their extremely radical teachings are not
at all in line with the actual teachings in the Quran.

I was excited to learn about
MuslimGirl.com and how Amani Al-Khatahtbeh wanted to shed light on what it
really means to be of the Islamic faith. Through her efforts, she founded Muslim
Women’s Day to highlight our voices and share our experiences. All the stories in
these six books are from Muslim women who wanted to make a difference and share
their various perspectives of what it’s like to grow up with the religion, as sisters
in Islam. I hope you enjoy these reads to help broaden your understanding of our
faith and how we all have different ways of finding our voice.

This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.

Muslim Girl
by Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh is the founder of MuslimGirl.com and helped create Muslim Women’s Day. At the age of nine, she watched with the rest of the country as everything changed after 9/11. In the months after, Islamophobia spread like wildfire, and she heard racial slurs targeted at Muslim-Americans like herself. A few years later, she took a trip back to her parents’ homeland, Jordan. There, firsthand, she saw the peaceful nature of Islam in a majority-Muslim country and was able to experience life without stereotypes, racial slurs and marginalization by the media. Inspired by her trip, she wanted to show the true face of Muslim-Americans to help quell the stereotypes and launched her site.

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Muslim Girl
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

In this New York Times Editor’s Pick, the brilliant founder of MuslimGirl.com shares her harrowing and candid account of what it’s like to be a young Muslim woman in the wake of 9/11, during the never-ending war on terror, and through the Trump era of casual racism.

At nine years old, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh watched from her home in New Jersey as two planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That same year, she heard her first racial slur. At thirteen, her family took a trip to her father’s native homeland of Jordan, and Amani experienced firsthand a culture built on the true peaceful nature of Islam in its purest form, not the Islamic stereotypes she heard on the news.

Inspired by her trip and after years of feeling like her voice as a Muslim woman was marginalized during a time when it seemed all Western media could talk about was, ironically, Muslim women, Amani created a website called Muslim Girl. As the editor-in-chief, she put together a team of Muslim women and started a life dedicated to activism.

Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age is the extraordinary account of Amani’s journey through adolescence as a Muslim girl, from the Islamophobia she’s faced on a daily basis, to the website she launched that became a cultural phenomenon, to the nation’s political climate in 2016 as Donald Trump wins the presidency. While dispelling the myth that a headscarf signifies neither radicalism nor oppression, she shares both her own personal accounts and anecdotes from the “sisterhood” of writers that serve as her editorial team at Muslim Girl. Amani’s “blunt…potent message…is a skillful unraveling of the myth of the submissive Muslim woman” (The New York Times Book Review) and a deeply necessary counterpoint to the current rhetoric about the Middle East.

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MENTIONED IN:

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Proud
by Ibtihaj Muhammad

Ibtihaj Muhammad is the first female Muslim-American to win a medal at the Olympic games! I remember when she made the US Olympic fencing team, there was a lot of media coverage about how she was the first athlete from the US to compete while wearing a hijab. She became a role model for so many young female athletes around the country. In her autobiography, Proud, she talks about how she grew up in New Jersey and discovered her love of fencing. She shares the challenges she faced being the only woman of color and the only religious minority on Team USA’s Olympic fencing squad when she competed in 2016.

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Proud
Ibtihaj Muhammad

Saimah's Pick #2 for FENCING Admittedly, I don’t think I’ve ever watched fencing competitions other than during the Olympics. I remember when Ibtihaj Muhammad made the U.S. Olympic fencing team in 2016, there was a lot of media coverage about how she was the first athlete from the U.S. to compete while wearing a hijab. So as a Muslim-American I wanted to watch her match to support her. She became a role model for so many young female athletes around the country and went on to be the first female Muslim-American to win a medal at the Olympic games! I really miss watching sports and am sad that the Olympics aren’t happening this year, so instead I’m focusing on my own challenge to read more books by BIPOC authors. In Ibtihaj Muhammad's autobiography, Proud, she talks about how she grew up in New Jersey and discovered her love of fencing. She shares the challenges she faced being the only woman of color and the only religious minority on Team USA’s Olympic fencing squad when she competed in 2016.

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We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders
by Linda Sarsour

As a Muslim-American, I was really thrilled to read Linda Sarsour’s memoir. She was one of the organizers of the inaugural Women’s March. In We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, she shares her story about how the racism and backlash after 9/11 affected her and the Muslim communities around the nation. She has spent her career fighting for women’s rights. She serves as an inspiration and role model not just for other Muslim-American women but for women of all backgrounds.

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We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders
Linda Sarsour

Linda Sarsour, co-organizer of the Women’s March, shares how growing up Palestinian Muslim American, feminist, and empowered moved her to become a globally recognized activist on behalf of marginalized communities across the country.

On a chilly spring morning in Brooklyn, nineteen-year-old Linda Sarsour stared at her reflection, dressed in a hijab for the first time. She saw in the mirror the woman she was growing to be—a young Muslim American woman unapologetic in her faith and her activism, who would discover her innate sense of justice in the aftermath of 9/11. Now heralded for her award-winning leadership of the Women’s March on Washington, in We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders Linda Sarsour offers a poignant story of community and family.

From the Brooklyn bodega her father owned, where Linda learned the real meaning of intersectionality, to protests in the streets of Washington, DC, Linda’s experience as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants is a moving portrayal of what it means to find one’s voice and use it for the good of others. We follow Linda as she learns the tenets of successful community organizing, and through decades of fighting for racial, economic, gender, and social justice as she becomes one of the most recognized activists in the nation. We also see her honoring her grandmother’s dying wish, protecting her children, building resilient friendships, and mentoring others even as she loses her first mentor in a tragic accident. Throughout, she inspires readers to take action as she reaffirms that we are not here to be bystanders.

In his foreword to the book, Harry Belafonte writes of Linda, “While we may not have made it to the Promised Land, my peers and I, my brothers and sisters in liberation can rest easy that the future is in the hands of leaders like Linda Sarsour. I have often said to Linda that she embodies the principle and purpose of another great Muslim leader, brother Malcolm X.”

This is her story.

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I Am Malala
by Malala Yousafzai

A list of books by Muslim women authors should certainly include the memoir of Malala Yousafzai and her harrowing story. At the age of fifteen, Malala was riding the bus from school one day in a Taliban-controlled area of Pakistan and was shot in the head at point-blank range for resisting the Taliban’s restrictions to female education. Nobody expected her to survive, but she miraculously recovered. Her experience made her even more passionate about her fight for girls’ right to education and she became a role model for women around the world. In 2014, Malala became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for the strides she made and the peaceful protests she led to continue to advocate for female education.

Fun fact: Muslim women were involved in founding some of the oldest educational institutions around the world. The oldest continually-running university in the world, University of Al-Karaouine, in 859 AD  in Fez, Morocco, was founded by Fatima-al-Fihri.

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I Am Malala
Malala Yousafzai

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head after she refused to be silenced or give up her right to go to school. Her memoir is the remarkable story of a family uprooted by global terrorism. I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.

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Love from A to Z
by S. K. Ali

Who doesn’t love a great YA romance? After Zayneb gets suspended after confronting her teacher for being Islamophobic, her parents decide it’s the perfect time to get her away from the nonsense. So, Zayneb kicks off her spring break a little early with a trip to Doha, Qatar, to visit her aunt.

Unexpectedly, she crosses paths with Adam, a college student who is taking a break from classes after learning about his multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis. He is focused on hiding his condition from his father, who is still grieving the loss of his late mother. Both Zayneb and Adam keep their thoughts locked away in their journal entries—that is until they meet each other. As they spend more time together and fall in love, they realize that they need to learn from each other how to better address and come to terms with the challenges they are facing.

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Love from A to Z
S. K. Ali

A School Library Journal Best Young Adult Book of 2019
A YALSA 2020 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

From William C. Morris Award Finalist S.K. Ali comes an unforgettable romance that is part The Sun Is Also a Star mixed with Anna and the French Kiss, following two Muslim teens who meet during a spring break trip.

A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.

An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.

But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry.

When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.

Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.

Then her path crosses with Adam’s.

Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.

Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.

Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.

Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…

Marvel: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

Oddity: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

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Yes, I’m Hot in This
by Huda Fahmy

Looking for a more lighthearted read from a Muslim woman? This comics collection is illustrated and written by the hilarious Insta-famous Huda Fahmy (@yesimhotinthis). She brings to life, in a poignant and funny way, interactions that many people around the world face every day. You don’t have to be Muslim or hijabi to appreciate her humor. Huda brings a great sarcastic voice to the Islamophobic situations she faces.

 

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Yes, I’m Hot in This
Huda Fahmy

Popular Instagram cartoonist and Muslim-American Huda Fahmy presents a hilarious, relatable, and painfully honest new collection of comics that break down barriers and show how universal our everyday problems, worries, and joys actually are. At some point in our lives, we’ve all felt a little out of place. Huda Fahmy has found it’s a little more difficult to fade into the crowd when wearing a hijab. In Yes, I’m Hot in This, Huda navigates the sometimes-rocky waters of life from the unique perspective of a Muslim-American woman, breaking down misconceptions of her culture one comic at a time. From recounting the many questions she gets about her hijab every day (yes, she does have hair) and explaining how she runs in an abaya (just fine, thank you) to dealing with misconceptions about Muslims, Yes, I’m Hot in This tackles universal feelings from an point of view we don’t hear from nearly enough. Every one of us have experienced love, misunderstanding, anger, and a deep desire for pizza. In Yes, I’m Hot in This, Huda’s clever comics demonstrate humor’s ability to bring us together, no matter how different we may appear on the surface.

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MENTIONED IN:

6 Books to Celebrate Muslim Women’s Day

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