The Hijab Files

by Maryam Azam

Maryam Azam's debut collection takes the significance of the hijab as its focus of attention. Though shamed and angered by the prejudice towards Muslims the scarf arouses, Azam is also aware of its sensuality and allure, and the power and protection it offers. In 'A Brief Guide to Hijab Fashion', 'Miss Khan Takes off her Hijab', and 'Places I've Prayed', she reflects on the rich possibilities of the scarf, the moral values it embodies, and the commitment required to maintain these values in a secular society. In the second section, 'Wallah Bros', she examines the tensions young Muslims experience when negotiating the technology of modern dating. The poems in the final section, 'The Piercing of this Place', are alert to the presence of spiritual forces in the world, and open on to the larger dimensions of time and space, to mystery and the prospect of death.
Azam's style is simple and direct, and informed with humour: it frames as it reveals, asserting the dignity of ritual and observance in everyday life.

Genres: Poetry

52 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Stephanie Youssef · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really tried to pace myself while reading this collection, but I couldn't put it down. Azam writes about her experiences of wearing the hijab - from finding a place to pray at school to being at the receiving end of racist remarks to dating - with humour and sadness and hope and so candidly. She writes about how the hijab makes her feel - it can be soft to the touch, sensuous, but also powerful - and how it feels naked to be without it.

Reading an interview with Azam, I read that she was inspired to write this collection due to the lack of hijabi representation, and the frustrating way they were represented - as repressed, silenced and powerless. The Hijab Files is a breath of fresh air.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s humour and insight in this debut poetry collection by Maryam Azam. The hijab of the title and the focus of many of the poems provide an awareness into Azam’s experience of wearing a headscarf and the reactions this visible symbol of her faith garners from others, from the angered and racist comment of a “hobbling bogan”, to the exclamation of “ninja” from a child, to the poet’s sense of empowerment wearing her hijab, captured in lines such as “power sizzles along the threads of my scarf.”

Poems such as Praying at school I and II, and That Hijabi from Strathfield Girls offer insight into the experience of life of teenage girls who choose to wear the headscarf and how pride, faith and self-awareness and self-consciousness collide. From trying to find a place for prayer and purity in the school sick bay with its aroma of disinfectant and illness, to a spot at the cinema, shielded by friends discussing a teen movie, to navigating dating and relationships, Azam captures modern life in honest and direct prose. This collection offers a candid and poetic viewpoint into the commitment and interpretation that faith can entail.

[Emkoshka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a review of this poetry collection in the August 2018 edition of Good Reading magazine (my current source for all Aussie reads!) and my interest was piqued. How lucky we are in Australia to have such a great variety of voices that one only needs visit the library to visit another culture! Azam's poetry is simple and direct but also packed full of sensuous detail about the wearing of the hijab and niqab; praying in public places; Muslim dating; and reflections on time, spirituality and ethereal other worlds glimpsed by animals. The only thing lacking was a glossary to explain to a non-Muslim reader what some of the clothing items are, but otherwise, this was brilliant.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, sharp collection from a Western Sydney perspective, under a hijab. The details and challenges of wearing a visible religious sign within the streets, to school.

A collection of place, experience, faith and femininity, jinns and cats.

[lucinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - read for uni.

[YoAq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.