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Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names: Stories of Leaving and Becoming
In this richly woven tapestry of stories, nine Arab women share their deeply personal journeys of migration to Australia, each reflecting on the legacies of their homelands and the complexities of forging new lives.
In their own voices, they explore the challenges of adaptation, the resilience born from adversity, moments of joy, and the enduring ties to their heritage. With unique perspectives, they examine Australian culture while confronting some of the world’s most pressing political injustices through the lens of lived experience.
A powerful testament to individuality and community, Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names seeks to dismantle stereotypes in a world that too often simplifies identity. This compelling collection inspires us all to rise above the barriers of sexism and racism, offering an urgent and unapologetic chorus of truth.
Contributions Mariam Maatooq, Loubna Haikal, Mary Hanoun Khilla, Sivine Tabbouch, Hend Saab, Kilda Eid, Camilia Naim, Oula Ghannoum, Nouha El-Khoury Francis.
In their own voices, they explore the challenges of adaptation, the resilience born from adversity, moments of joy, and the enduring ties to their heritage. With unique perspectives, they examine Australian culture while confronting some of the world’s most pressing political injustices through the lens of lived experience.
A powerful testament to individuality and community, Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names seeks to dismantle stereotypes in a world that too often simplifies identity. This compelling collection inspires us all to rise above the barriers of sexism and racism, offering an urgent and unapologetic chorus of truth.
Contributions Mariam Maatooq, Loubna Haikal, Mary Hanoun Khilla, Sivine Tabbouch, Hend Saab, Kilda Eid, Camilia Naim, Oula Ghannoum, Nouha El-Khoury Francis.
- GenresNonfiction
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 30, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 26, 2026
Such a beautiful collection of stories about migration, resilience, belonging and loss. The beautiful words written by the nine women paint such vivid pictures of their homelands, describing landscapes and memories with such warmth that you can almost hear the music and smell the morning coffee in the various home countries they left behind. These stories will stay with me for a long time ❤️
November 13, 2025
Soaring story’s
January 3, 2026
A beautiful combination of stories showing the power of identity and belonging
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April 2, 2026beautiful. I see my mother & grandmother in many of these stories.
January 13, 2026
Great read, amazing stories !!
January 30, 2026
This is my review intro: I’ve posted my full piece on Substack - https://open.substack.com/pub/poppyge...
‘Her voice carried the raw, tender huskiness of women from the Lebanese mountains,’ Loubna Haikal writes in her poignant introduction to Don’t Ask The Trees for Their Names – Stories of Leaving and Becoming.
Loubna is recalling the phone call she received from her friend, Nouha El-Khoury Francis, inviting her to join an Arab women’s writing group. Loubna accepts Nouha’s invitation, quietly hoping that the writing group might ease her nostalgia for Lebanon. It actually helps her in a myriad of ways. It was 2021, and they met on Zoom – no masks, no hijabs – ‘bound by language, displacement and the need to write.’
‘I was home. Their strength and humour inspired me. How hungry I was to be in Arabic, amongst the women of my community!’ she reflects.
The result is a compelling anthology, co-edited by contributors Loubna and Oula Ghannoum, featuring stories by nine writers who moved to Australia from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Sudan. The writers were given a brief: Write about the day you left your home country, the day you arrived in Australia, and the first time you returned home. The women wrote first in Arabic, and then, as the idea of the collection solidified, their stories were translated into English.
‘Moving between languages meant more than just substituting words. Arabic’s poetic, ornate and contemplative style distracted from what was too painful for the writer to expose. English stripped away the covers and the masks, forcing us to confront cultural taboos and articulate what had been left unsaid,’ Loubna writes.
The aim was to bring Arab women writers together, to create an anthology of migration stories that would collectively challenge the dehumanisiation of Arab Australians, and reveal untold stories of Arab women living in Australia. The project took on an unanticipated significance following Oct 7, 2023, and it provides a significant perspective of seismic global political events through the unique lens of women who have lived through the reality of war, occupation, resistance, displacement, exile and devastating loss.
In every story, precious jewels of detail are woven through reflections about family, love, longing and loss. Underpinning each story is an uneasy acknowledgement that these writers now live on unceded land in Australia. The writers have a profound understanding of dispossession, its legacies, and the connection that indigenous people have to their land. A love of literature, music and intellectual writing is another commonality: peppered throughout are intriguing, colourful references to Arabic fairytales; work by Egyptian, Lebanese and Palestinian writers, poets, singers, psychologists, scholars, political thinkers and more.
It’s a gorgeously vivid and heart-wrenching mosaic of people, places, and thought-provoking viewpoints. These are brave, generous and beautifully written stories that will percolate in your mind long after you’ve finished reading.
‘Her voice carried the raw, tender huskiness of women from the Lebanese mountains,’ Loubna Haikal writes in her poignant introduction to Don’t Ask The Trees for Their Names – Stories of Leaving and Becoming.
Loubna is recalling the phone call she received from her friend, Nouha El-Khoury Francis, inviting her to join an Arab women’s writing group. Loubna accepts Nouha’s invitation, quietly hoping that the writing group might ease her nostalgia for Lebanon. It actually helps her in a myriad of ways. It was 2021, and they met on Zoom – no masks, no hijabs – ‘bound by language, displacement and the need to write.’
‘I was home. Their strength and humour inspired me. How hungry I was to be in Arabic, amongst the women of my community!’ she reflects.
The result is a compelling anthology, co-edited by contributors Loubna and Oula Ghannoum, featuring stories by nine writers who moved to Australia from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Sudan. The writers were given a brief: Write about the day you left your home country, the day you arrived in Australia, and the first time you returned home. The women wrote first in Arabic, and then, as the idea of the collection solidified, their stories were translated into English.
‘Moving between languages meant more than just substituting words. Arabic’s poetic, ornate and contemplative style distracted from what was too painful for the writer to expose. English stripped away the covers and the masks, forcing us to confront cultural taboos and articulate what had been left unsaid,’ Loubna writes.
The aim was to bring Arab women writers together, to create an anthology of migration stories that would collectively challenge the dehumanisiation of Arab Australians, and reveal untold stories of Arab women living in Australia. The project took on an unanticipated significance following Oct 7, 2023, and it provides a significant perspective of seismic global political events through the unique lens of women who have lived through the reality of war, occupation, resistance, displacement, exile and devastating loss.
In every story, precious jewels of detail are woven through reflections about family, love, longing and loss. Underpinning each story is an uneasy acknowledgement that these writers now live on unceded land in Australia. The writers have a profound understanding of dispossession, its legacies, and the connection that indigenous people have to their land. A love of literature, music and intellectual writing is another commonality: peppered throughout are intriguing, colourful references to Arabic fairytales; work by Egyptian, Lebanese and Palestinian writers, poets, singers, psychologists, scholars, political thinkers and more.
It’s a gorgeously vivid and heart-wrenching mosaic of people, places, and thought-provoking viewpoints. These are brave, generous and beautifully written stories that will percolate in your mind long after you’ve finished reading.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews