Headstrong Daughters: Inspiring stories from the new generation of Australian Muslim women

by Nadia Jamal

How would you feel, as a guest, about sitting in a suburban living room that is for women only? What if you wanted a baby but as a single woman could not have one outside of a marriage? Could you stay home to mourn a husband for four months and ten days? Headstrong Daughters takes us inside the lives of Muslim women in Australia today. They are working professionals, mothers, and students. At home they are finding ways to stay true to their faith as well as to themselves, navigating the expectations of their families and the traditions they brought with them to their new country.But things are not always what they seem. These candid, moving and sometimes surprising stories reveal a side to Australian life that is little known and often misunderstood. Inspiring, warm and determined, these women are the new face of Islam in Australia.'A thoughtful, honest, and compelling window into a community so often assumed about, but rarely engaged with. I finished it in a single sitting.'Susan Carland, author of Fighting Hislam'Jamal's neutral, yet gently perceptive style allows the stories of her women to shine through, illuminating the myriad points of intersection with Islam in ordinary life. An absolutely fascinating and illuminating read.'Annabel Crabb, ABC writer and broadcaster

292 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2018

About the author

I currently work as a financial crime analyst at a global bank. Prior to this, I was a newspaper and digital journalist at Fairfax Media, starting my 15-year career at The Sydney Morning Herald as a reporter. I also held senior newsroom roles at Fairfax's smh.com.au and the Sunday newspaper, The Sun-Herald. After leaving journalism, I gained my qualifications to practise as a lawyer. My book, Headstrong Daughters, is about how Muslim women from a range of cultural backgrounds live in Australia. It covers diverse themes including segregated living rooms, Sunni-Shiite relationships, and inheritance rules. Headstrong Daughters is my second published book. My first book, The Glory Garage, covered the lives of teenage girls from a Lebanese Australian Muslim background. This book was short-listed for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was a runner-up in the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year for Information Books. Both of my books were published by Allen & Unwin and delve into how women living in Australia straddle different cultural and religious expectations.