It's Not About the Burqa

An anthology of essays by Muslim women about the contemporary Muslim female experience. In 2016, Mariam Khan read that British Prime Minister 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? Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It's Not About the Burqa has something to say: twenty Muslim women speaking up for themselves. Here are essays about the hijab and wavering faith, love and divorce, queer identity, sex, the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country, and about how Islam and feminism go hand in hand. Funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, each essay is a passionate declaration, calling time on oppression, lazy stereotyping, misogyny, and Islamophobia. It's Not About the Burqa doesn't claim to speak for a faith or a group of people, because it's time the world realized that Muslim women are not a monolith. It's time the world listened to them.