It’s such an exciting time seeing beautiful memoirs written by Muslim women, writing touchingly yet honestly about their life stories, on their own terms. Thank you to Oneworld Publications for the advance copy.

The title of Ayesha’s memoir is inspired by a verse in the Qur’an that mentions Allah’s “sibghah” but more commonly sibghah is used in Arabic when talking about a dye - after reading the memoir I felt this sense of the title referring to the richness, complexity, depth and beauty there is to God and to Islam as a faith - a richness and beauty that in the author’s life experience got stripped back somewhat when shortly after immigrating from Pakistan to Canada, her parents joined Tanzeem E Islami, an Islamic organisation founded in Pakistan that teaches a puritanical and patriarchal interpretation of Islam.

What is fascinating about Ayesha’s memoir is that she also tells her parents’ story - how the constant and blatant racism they faced in Canada led to them joining this organisation, and how they genuinely believed they were protecting their children. We learn about Ayesha’s experiences wearing the niqab, and of the countless assumptions people made of her while wearing it, and people’s comments made later on after no longer wearing it but learning she once wore it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ayesha’s memoir; I appreciated how candid and honest she was while also providing a wealth of nuance and context. She writes about some uncomfortable truths while clarifying that she knows there will be those out there who will try to use her experiences to fit their own agendas. It’s a challenge that many of us continue to face - how do we write about our uncomfortable truths and be honest without repercussions from those who are racist and Islamophobic and then repercussions from within our community? Ayesha has done a fantastic job.