This is one book I’ve been eyeing since last year and when the team at Pan Macmillan reached out to me with a list of books in exchange of an honest review, I was so excited. Books written by women have always been my inspiration and especially those written by women for women.
Disclaimer: This book was kindly gifted to me by Pan Macmillan SA in exchange for an honest review.
Review
This book is a collection of essays written by Muslim women in the west, which ranges from personal to academic. With these essays, they are reclaiming their narrative on faith/religion, feminism, sexuality, marriage and race. These are the topics not usually discussed in depth by women in different religions. In the past, women’s voices did not matter but that has been changing a lot over the past decades. This book aims to eliminate many misinformed narratives.
During my reading adventure, I laughed, I cried, I listened and cheered my way through this book. I became aware of things I knew nothing about. I got to know more about Muslim women and that being a Muslim women is “Not About The Burqa”. I must say, I noticed a few similarities to other religions i.e. how women were treated in the past.
The media portrays a different picture about Muslim women, how they are marginalized and need to be saved. This book aims to eliminate all those misconceptions. It is an important book and a good way to start relevant conversations that women need to have. I hope it is a motivation for more stories, because we need them.
If you are able to get your hands on this book; I would highly recommend you get it and read it soon. You will not regret it.
Book Details
Goodreads Summary
In 2016, Mariam Khan read that David Cameron had linked the radicalization of Muslim men to the ‘traditional submissiveness’ of Muslim women. Mariam felt pretty sure she didn’t know a single Muslim woman who would describe herself that way. Why was she hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim, nor female? Years later the state of the national discourse has deteriorated even further, and Muslim women’s voices are still pushed to the fringes – the figures leading the discussion are white and male.
Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. Funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, each of these essays is a passionate declaration, and each essay is calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia.
What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it’s all about the burqa. Here’s what it’s really about.
Title: It’s Not About The Burqa; Author: Mariam Khan; Originally Published: 21 February 2019; Publisher: Pan Macmillan; Page Count: 241
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