On the Importance of Muslim Representation, a guest post by author Aamna Qureshi

I’ve always been an avid reader, which naturally grew into a desire to write my own books. At first when I started writing, my stories were like those I saw on the shelves of my library and classrooms, featuring white main characters. Until one day it struck me: I didn’t have to write about white people. This was my book. I could write characters who looked like me and how the idea of When a Brown Girl Flees came about.

It’s a young adult literary novel about a Pakistani-American, Muslim teenager who runs away from home, and I primarily got the idea by seeing other runaway teen stories on television and in books and asking the questions, “What would this look like if the main character was brown? If she was a daughter of immigrants? If she was Muslim?” And as I wrote the novel, I realized just how important Muslim representation in books can be.

Such representation is vital because it makes people feel seen and understood, particularly for those who are perhaps a minority in their community, and who don’t get to see a lot of themselves outside of their home. The Muslim population in America is a little over one percent, so we’re definitely a minority in this country.

Personally speaking, I was one of two Muslims in my graduating class, and there were maybe two or three Muslim families total in my entire high school. I was also the only person in my high school (aside from my sister) who wore the hijab, which automatically made me stand out. Being the only person who does certain things or abstains from other things really isolates you. Representation is really important because it makes you feel less alone. In a way, it also confirms your existence on a larger scale – like yes, we are here. Lost in a crowd with nobody else like you, it’s easy to feel like you might disappear. But to see yourself in a book reaffirms the fact that you do exist. Everybody deserves to see themselves being represented in books.

Muslim representation is equally important for non-Muslims, too. Since Muslims make up one percent of the US population, there’s a high chance that many Americans can live their entire lives without interacting with a single Muslim in real life. So where do most people get their information about Muslims from? The media!

Unfortunately, a lot of media has been extremely negative regarding Muslims, especially now with the genocide occurring in illegally occupied Palestine. When most people hear about Muslims, it’s on the news, and Muslims are usually described as a whole host of terrible things. Muslims have been spoken of in a negative way for a long time, leading to rampant Islamophobia and a culture of fear regarding Muslims. There are real life consequences to this kind of misinformation, including hate-crimes and in some cases, severe physical assault and death. Just a few months ago, a six-year-old Muslim child was killed in his own home, and a few Muslim college students were shot in their own campus. Those instances don’t just occur out of the blue; fear and hatred is instilled within people until they feel compelled to take such drastic action.

Thoughtful Muslim representation can greatly combat Islamophobia, and this is a huge part of why I write the books that I write. For people who have never met Muslims in real life, and only see negative portrayals in the news, if they can read a book with Muslims characters, and see those characters living ordinary, normal lives, that could show readers that these Muslims are just like them—that they are just human. Reading about Muslim characters can foster compassion and empathy, and spread love and camaraderie, instead of fear and hatred. And we need a lot more love in the world right now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aamna Qureshi (she/her) is a Muslim Pakistani American who adores words. She is the award-winning author of the YA fantasy novel The Lady or the Lion. She grew up on Long Island, New York, in a very loud household, surrounded by English (for school), Urdu (for conversation), and Punjabi (for emotion). Aamna currently lives in New York. Look for her online at aamnaqureshi.com.

ABOUT WHEN A BROWN GIRL FLEES

In this searing contemporary YA novel, a Muslim teen runs away from home only to find herself on a breathtaking journey of healing, self-love, and hope.

After Zahra Paracha makes a decision at odds with her beliefs, her mother forces Zahra to make an impossible choice about her future. So Zahra runs away. A train and a plane ride later, she finds herself in New York, where she relinquishes her past in favor of a new future. There, she must learn who she is without the marionette strings of control in her mother’s hands. As Zahra tries to build a life for herself in this new place, the heart of the matter becomes clear: she can’t run away forever. Can she close the rift in her family and truly, fully heal?

“Beautifully, bravely and empathetically rendered, When a Brown Girl Flees is a vital addition to the growing Muslim young adult canon. Qureshi brilliantly includes and celebrates recognizable communal touchstones, while emphasizing this narrative’s individuality as a particular (and necessary) experience among many, and encouraging both—a new facet of cultural and emotional depiction that offers warm familiarity while emphasizing its presence as one particular (and necessary) experience in what is a diverse collective, rather than a unified monolith. This title should be warmly welcomed, and widely shelved.” —Karuna Riazi, author of A Bit of Earth and The Gauntlet

Filed under: Muslim