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Hijab Butch Blues

A Memoir

by Lamya H
ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: At least 6 months
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: At least 6 months

'A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart'
GLENNON DOYLE, author of Untamed
**Roxane Gay's Book Club March 2022 Pick**

When Lamya is fourteen, she decides to disappear.

It seems easier to ease herself out of sight than to grapple with the difficulty of taking shape in a world that doesn't fit. She is a queer teenager growing up in a Muslim household, a South Asian in a Middle Eastern country. But during her Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam, and suddenly everything shifts: if Maryam was never touched by any man, could Maryam be... like Lamya?
Written with deep intelligence and a fierce humour, Hijab Butch Blues follows Lamya as she travels to the United States, as she comes out, and as she navigates the complexities of the immigration system - and the queer dating scene. At each step, she turns to her faith to make sense of her life, weaving stories from the Quran together with her own experiences: Musa leading his people to freedom; Allah, who is neither male nor female; and Nuh, who built an ark, just as Lamya is finally able to become the architect of her own story.
Raw and unflinching, Hijab Butch Blues heralds the arrival of a truly original voice, asking powerful questions about gender and sexuality, relationships, identity and faith, and what it means to build a life of one's own.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 17, 2022
      Lamya H. debuts with a thoughtful examination of her queer South Asian identity and Islamic faith. At age 14, Lamya, who uses a pseudonym to protect her identity, first read Surah Maryam, the Quran’s chapter about the woman known in Christianity as the Virgin Mary, and felt a kinship with her, as they were both “uninterested in men.” As a young adult, Lamya moved to the United States from an unnamed Arab city in the Middle East. She encountered rampant Islamophobia at her (unnamed) American university—most painfully in queer circles that didn’t believe a gay person could be Muslim—but gradually found a community of queer Muslims who welcomed her. “This is the world fourteen-year-old me couldn’t even begin to imagine,” she writes. Through the stories of prophets accepting the wahi (a divine revelation or command), Lamya finds the joy in embracing and sharing her queer, Muslim selfhood as a wahi of her own: “It’s that glorious feeling that comes from inviting someone into your world.” The narrative is profoundly emotional, and Lamya’s determination to fight for a better world hits home: “I’m also not faithless enough to think that the direction in which I strive doesn’t matter.” This will inspire both compassion and reflection. Agent: Julia Kardon, HG Literary.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

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