However, this trauma, and the mental health ramifications are not unique to our community.
A community, as is clearly stated within the novel, continues to deal with the trauma since 1948.
What does this do for our community on the ground? This story felt like it was a blanket narrative for the Palestinian-American community. It is deeply upsetting when someone else is finding inspiration in our collective trauma. One of the most conflicting aspects of the novel is the notion that women beyond our community have been showering the novel with praise. How do we build a stronger, healthier community from the inside out – not the other way around? I wanted to be here for this book, but all I could think of while reading was the audience, and impact it is having on the mainstream, American audience. I worked my young adult life to combat negative cultural affliction, and build a life for myself that preserved the beauty of my culture while remaining true to myself and my deen. And taking it off is ok and not because you want to but because society dictates to you how you should behave.Īs a Palestinian-American who has lived on the brink of assimilation my entire life – this novel pushed me to revisit the struggle I had growing up as a young Palestinian-American woman. In essence, the character makes it seem as though hijab automatically signals you an outcast, that it is better to take it off. There is a scene in the book where Israa (one of the main characters in the novel) is told she does not have to “wear that thing” by her husband, referring to the hijab. This novel weaves together a three-generational Palestinian-American immigrant to first-generation experience. Oh but wait … this isn’t a novel about Muslims in America. This may just be the point, our community has to fight harder for our humanity to be recognized, and fiction or not, what is put out into the media either increases our humanity or further dehumanizes us. East Brunswick, New Jersey records a hian incident with a high school Muslim girl being beaten and called a “terrorist”. Community members had to crowd a board meeting in order to demand action. The NYPD failed to investigate the incident as a hate crime, until she (the victim) pursued it herself. Fatoumata Camara was beaten when she stepped off a bus in the Bronx, while getting jumped religious slurs were yelled at her. In recent months it seems as though attacks against visibly Muslim young women have increased. Arguably, since 2016 it has been much worse for minorities in America, including Muslims. Right now, in 2019 being a minority and a visibly Muslim woman, we bear the brunt of Islamophobia in way that we have not seen since 9/11.
Even though I wanted to be here for this book I couldn’t.
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