num_pages: 304
description: A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this daring provocative and radically hopeful memoir.When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher--her female teacher--she covers up her attraction an attraction she can't yet name by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place like her own desires and dreams don't matter and it's easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: when Maryam learned that she was pregnant she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam uninterested in men be . . . like Lamya?From that moment on Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah who is neither male nor female might instead be nonbinary; and drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark begins to build a life of her own--ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer devout Muslim immigrant.This searingly intimate memoir in essays spanning Lamya's childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City tells a universal story of courage trust and love celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one's own life.
language: English
title: Hijab Butch Blues
publisher: The Dial Press