We are pleased to announce that our new bimonthly column – Food, Love, & Memories – will debut next Wednesday, May 7th! Some of our most evocative memories arise from shared meals with friends or strangers, being fed by our mothers as children (or adults), or a simple sniff of the spice jar. We break bread, and learn something about ourselves and our relationship to others & the world in the process. Do you have a story to share? Use a meaningful or favorite recipe as... Read more
At 21 I married a man five years older than me. The second time around, at 31, I married a man five years younger than me. Eight years into our marriage, it still sends little shock waves through people when I mention this. There are sometimes oooohs and aaahhhs, eyes get bigger and rounder, and I can almost see folks wanting to high five me and slap my husband on the back for biting the bullet and marrying an older,... Read more
Writer Jennifer Zobair, the author of Painted Hands, found herself feeling uncomfortable when people thanked her for making Muslim women seem “normal” in her novel. She wrote, “The repeated use of [the word normal] haunts me. The repeated use of that word inspires me. I believe that stories matter, that who gets to tell a story has real, tangible consequences for people’s lives, that knowing means at least a shot at not hating. It is my hope that if we tell our... Read more
Dear Love Inshallah, My husband has gained a lot of weight. When we got married, he was a bit overweight but it never affected our relationship or our sex life. Four years later, he is obese. His energy is down and when we have sex, it has become difficult to find a suitable position. When he is on top, his weight crushes me. When I am on top, his stomach is too large and the penetration is not as deep.... Read more
I was on a conference call one evening last week when my call waiting beeped at me. It took me a few seconds to recognize the number since I only see that area code a couple times a year. It was my dad. I let it go to voicemail. I waited until the next day to check the message. His voice came amicably through the receiver and he chided me jokingly about turning 40 a few weeks earlier. My dad... Read more
I have written a lot recently on my experience with caregiving and death both at my first blog and then the subsequent one on how to slowly wake up and live after the death of someone close to you. But today I want to write about something else: how this experience impacts a child. I am not a child psychologist, but I can relate my own experiences and those of my son and show how it scarred and molded him, how he learned... Read more
36 Flavors of Self Loathing 1. In 2nd grade a boy called me fat, there hasn’t been a day since then, when I loved my body completely. 2. At 18 I found myself locked in a restaurant freezer with a boss who was trying to use his hands to convince me that sex with him was part of the job. 3. There were nights after you left, when I filled my bed with everything that you touched, hoping to fill... Read more
The Honesty Policy’s video of Pharrell’s “Happy” featuring UK Muslims has taken the world by storm this week. Here’s to joy & creativity. Enjoy & happy Friday 🙂 Read more
I was five years old when I realized that I was different from the kids around me. This was in the 80s when there weren’t a whole lot of Muslims, especially in the small Northern Californian neighborhood where I grew up. I was placed in a Spanish/ESL class on the first day of school because of my dark hair and dark eyes. I was placed in a room with children who looked more like me than the blonde haired, blue... Read more
Two months ago, sitting in a Turkish restaurant packed to capacity on a Saturday night, one of my oldest friends told me he had found someone. We’ve known each other longer than either of us can remember, and were partners in crime long before we ever fully realized it. In recent years, as we’ve both been searching for that elusive part of our future, the partner-in-crime thing had been thrown into even starker contrast: we’d meet for dinner or coffee... Read more
Love, InshAllah
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In