Status Updates From We Have Always Been Here: A...

“I tried to hold back my tears—for the first time I was witnessing a version of Islam I could be a part of. After being scolded and frozen out, I now felt that Islam was welcoming me back into its arms. It had been an awful lonely time, and I was glad to be in the company of people who didn’t ask me to change who I was in order to share space with them. I had finally found my people.”

“In the mirror, I adjusted my posture and examined my body. Maybe being a woman could be a source of power for me. What would it feel like to walk through the world daring to present myself without apology? Why had I never given myself permission to marvel at my body and appreciate how resilient it had been? How it had gently carried me through pain and trauma, and how for years I hid it under layers of shame.”

“...despite having grand dreams of becoming a writer and travelling the world, my future consisted of being a good Pakistani wife. I was destined for a life of servitude, just like Nasir’s mother, my mother, and my mother’s mother, who all muted their ambitions and defining traits to be pious sisters, getting lost in a sea of burka-clad wives.“

Nooooo

“I wondered how long it would take me to forget the language I dreamt in, stripping the proof of otherness from my speech.”

oops accidentally starting another memoir :/