We absolutely love this blog We Are the 15% – a crowdsourced gallery of pictures of interracial families. The blog was created in the wake of the ridiculous “controversy” over a Cheerios ad featuring a family with a black father and white mother. Check out the commercial below and then head over to the website to view (and maybe submit?) some beautiful family pictures! Read more
I am estranged from my father, and no, I don’t like talking about it. Why bring it up in the public sphere? Because I get too many intrusive questions about him in the private sphere, and this is my way of setting the record straight. My parents’ love story went terribly wrong. They knew each other from school and got married when my mum was twenty-one, and my dad was twenty-four. I’ve seen the wedding photos, slightly yellowed with age.... Read more
“It’s because you’re black.” He repositioned himself in the chair, then looked down at his cup of coffee and grabbed the handle. I could tell this conversation made him uncomfortable. He was from the subcontinent but had the swag of a black brotha. He said he was having a hard time find a sister from his background because he couldn’t relate to them. “I’m sorry, it’s just my family wouldn’t be happy…” He said this apologetically while taking... Read more
I have been playing the role of two different people in one body for more than five years. There is one persona who is a strong woman, who is happy the way Allah has kept her, who does not care about what people say and is living her life to the fullest. This woman does not mind being alone. But there is this others side where the fear of what-if-the-right-guy-never-shows-up is growing intense with every passing day. Sometimes, I am... Read more
We just received word that the Love InshAllah blog has been nominated for Best Blog, Best Group Blog and Best Post in the 10th Annual Brass Crescent Awards! A deep, heartfelt thank you to our amazing community of writers and readers who help make this one of the most diverse, inclusive, provocative, and relevant sites around. We hope you will vote and support us today and check out the other wonderful nominees we are honored to be in the company of.... Read more
I never said thank you for that time you put your hand on my back and told me it was OK to leave. I’d left you sobbing on your bed. You were in fifth grade then. Arms lean muscles reaching to cover bone. Lanky in form, but small in frame and wailing when I said that I was leaving your dad. Even though I was raising you, I had no legal or biological claim to you. Leaving your dad was... Read more
I have opinions. About the X-Men. I’m a child of the 1990’s, so my reference point is the amazing cartoon, “X-Men: The Animated Series,” which aired from 1992-1997 (like “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” the recent movies simply don’t exist in my brain database). Rogue was my favorite, she of the big hair, epic sass, and ability to fly. I had a crush on Gambit, and an inexplicable thing for guys with N’Awlins accents and the ability to... Read more
As much as it annoyed my family and my then-estranged husband, I refused to find out my child’s sex before birth. I figured that the world could wait to press its confining gender roles upon my child. I wanted to be surprised by God. I dreamt of a little girl learning to play catch and a boy learning to cook. I dreamt of children of both sexes learning, growing, and making spectacular messes. I was determined to rejoice in whoever... Read more
How do we change the world? We change the story. Check out this beautiful video from The Sustainable Man, TedX talk highlights from author Charles Eisenstein. Everything is interconnected and our individual daily actions — and thoughts — ripple out into the world with real consequences. On this Friday, be kind and soft with one another. “Those who are merciful have mercy shown them by the Compassionate One, if you show mercy to those who are in the earth, He Who... Read more
Dear Love InshAllah, I was in a relationship for ten years, engaged for three and married for seven. My husband was older than me and had a very checkered past, which I found attractive when I was younger. But slowly I grew up and he stayed a child. When we got married he was physically abusive and it took me years to get him to accept it. He then thought that because he accepted that it was abuse, that he... Read more
Love, InshAllah
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In