Love, InshAllah
Our first satirical V-Day card, courtesy of someecards (the internet’s one-stop shop for e-greeting parodies): To send this card to your friends, click here! Read more
Our first satirical V-Day card, courtesy of someecards (the internet’s one-stop shop for e-greeting parodies): To send this card to your friends, click here! Read more
Our 23rd & final contributor spotlight! We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing from our wonderful writers! An excerpt from Patricia’s story, “Love at Third Sight”: “I had never met a twenty-three-year-old guy who was so formal and polite, without being the least bit strange or creepy. He told me humbly how impressed he was with all that I had said, and how it was great to hear people at UCLA talking about the Palestinian struggle. I was flattered, and thought he... Read more
An excerpt from Nour’s story, “So I Married a Farangi”: “My parents are observant Muslims who would take us to the mosque in central Jersey every Sunday for religion and Arabic classes. Starting when I was very young, they drilled into me that dating is haram and that interactions with the opposite sex are to be undertaken with that in mind. But they were pretty accepting of my having boys as good friends. I came to understand that my interactions... Read more
Lena Hassan has wanted to be a writer since the age of 10, but turned seriously to the profession just a few years ago. She writes fiction and is starting to think about publishing. She currently lives in Syria where it’s lonely to be an English-language writer, especially after most non-Syrians have left the country, but she has managed to form a small writing group. She recently received her MFA in fiction. An excerpt from Lena’s story, “Cyberlove”: “Over time,... Read more
An excerpt from J. Samia Mair’s story, “A Journey of Two Hearts”:“Mike and I were about to become engaged, and I vaguely remembered reading that a Muslim woman could not marry a non-Muslim man. Mike had no intention of converting. He was a lapsed Catholic to whom Catholic school had not been kind. We held similar spiritual beliefs, but whereas I felt organized religion was unnecessary, it scared him. I did not want to face the possibility of having to choose between love and religion. I had... Read more
Arts, culture and politics journal The Brooklyn Rail reviews Love, InshAllah: “…the stories transcend stereotypical conceptions with humor and heartbreak; which is to say, with humanity. Whether introducing Catholic beaus to immigrant parents or cyber-eloping as an Islam-convert in a post-9/11 America, the collection does not unveil repressed, obedient girls, but willful women whose search for love is at once complex and joyful.” Read more, here. Read more
Come meet Love, InshAllah’s editors and contributors at one of our upcoming book readings! Our 2-week tour starts next week in San Francisco, and we’ll be visiting Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., and wrapping up in Los Angeles. Check out our events page for the latest updates. Some highlights of our tour: Thursday, February 9th at 7:30pm — Booksmith in San Francisco Monday, February 13th at 7:00pm — Harvard University Wednesday, February 15th at 7:00pm — Columbia University Thursday,... Read more
Insiya Ansari is a writer who was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. An excerpt from Insiya’s story, “Sex by Any Other Name”: “My parents have always called themselves liberal Muslims. While I was growing up, they prayed namaz about as often as they drank beer and wine––neither was regular practice, nor occasioned only by a holiday––and they paid interest on our home. These behaviors countered conventional orthodoxy; some are considered haram. My parents weren’t the sort to pull the “because I said so” card, and for... Read more
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Nijla Mu’min is a writer and filmmaker currently attending CalArts graduate Writing and Film Directing Programs. Much of her work is concerned with subverting ideas of the “politicized” body. Within that scope, she explores familial relationships, silence, sexuality, and duality in black women. All of these issues converge in her feature script Salaam, which centers on a Black, Muslim girl named Sabaa who navigates sexuality, popular culture, and teen-girl folklore in a search for self-definition. Her writing and film work can be... Read more
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