Diana Ishaqat’s Reviews > But You Don't Look Arab: And Other Tales of Unbelonging > Status Update

There’s a whole genre of Arab writers who write about being so ‘unbelievably’ white. This comes with a baggage I’m already disappointed with: talking about Circassian, Abkhaz and potentially Georgian ancestry in terms of concubines and harems from the very start, conveniently leaving famine, and genocide on the margins. Sure, why talk about this when you can massage the reader’s mind with orientalism?