{"id":539,"date":"2012-01-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveinshallah\/?p=539"},"modified":"2014-11-03T11:19:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T18:19:11","slug":"spotlight-huda-al-marashi-memoirist-creative-writing-fellow-and-love-inshallah-contributor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveinshallah\/2012\/01\/13\/spotlight-huda-al-marashi-memoirist-creative-writing-fellow-and-love-inshallah-contributor\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: Huda Al-Marashi, memoirist, creative writing fellow and Love InshAllah contributor!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Huda Al-Marashi\u2019s piece in\u00a0Love InshAllah<\/em>\u00a0is an excerpt from a manuscript she\u2019s been working on for six years. She first started writing after September 11th, and relates her writing journey: \u201cI started writing scenes that spoke to the experience of growing up Muslim and American in California, but over time, I realized I was writing to an agenda rather than telling a unified story. I had to step back and think about the story I most wanted to tell, and I knew that was the story of my marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

An excerpt from Huda\u2019s story, \u201cOtherwise Engaged\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter dinner one evening, my mom, Zena, and I sat around the breakfast nook table with a stack of phyllo dough in front of each of us. We dug our spoons into a pan of saut\u00e9ed spinach and feta cheese and then dropped their contents onto the center of a strip of pastry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bringing up the sides of the dough around a dollop of spinach, Zena said, \u201cShe\u2019s only eighteen. You should\u2019ve waited. She is beautiful, <\/em>mashAllah. It\u2019s nice for a girl to see how many suitors she can get.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to sell a sheep,\u201d Mama answered. \u201cWhat does it matter how many people come?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what I mean. It\u2019s nice for a girl to feel wanted, and then her future in-laws will value her more when they know how many people came for her.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey already know what they\u2019re getting. They\u2019ve seen all kinds of girls. They know there is nobody like my Huddie.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there\u2019s nobody like her. That\u2019s why I\u2019m saying maybe you could\u2019ve gotten everything: somebody with a good future, a good family, maybe <\/em>sayyid.\u201d\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To read the rest of Huda\u2019s story, order <\/a>Love InshAllah<\/em> today.<\/p>\n

Why were you drawn to this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This project relates directly to themes I am exploring in my own work. Our love stories are our most relatable journeys, especially in a political climate bent on demonizing Muslims.<\/p>\n

What was the most challenging part of sharing your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing is such a solitary activity that owning my work in a public way is a challenge. Talking about love and attraction has always been considered\u00a0ayb<\/em>\u00a0or shameful among conservative Arab Muslims. I am constantly torn between the writer who strongly believes in her work and the girl who fears offending\u00a0her elders. This sense of conflict is only compounded by the fact that I must implicate my husband, my in-laws, and my family in order to tell my story. I hope that I bring them into my literary world with the reverence that such breaches of their privacy deserve. Ultimately, I carry on because I believe the good that comes from sharing our stories far outweighs the consequences of exposure.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing you hope that readers will take away from your story, what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a Muslim, I hope my story has challenged stereotypes. As an individual,\u00a0I hope I have shown the tenderness and warmth that can exist between a couple that did not date prior to their engagement. And as a writer participating within this collection, I hope I have given our readers a sense of the diversity within the Muslim-American experience.<\/p>\n

Anything else you\u2019d like to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love that this project broadens our understanding of love and the many different ways in which people find love. It reminds me of a time when a cosmetologist asked me if my marriage was arranged. I told her that it was more complicated than that; I\u2019d known my husband since I was six years old. She asked, \u201cIsn\u2019t that like marrying your brother?\u201d Her comment stayed with me for a long time. I resented the suggestion that my marriage had been in some way incestuous, but I also realized that her questions revealed a deeper misunderstanding. The cosmetologist simply could not imagine the gender-segregated life I had led. She could not picture a world where I could know my husband since childhood and yet hardly know him at all.\u00a0Love, Inshallah\u00a0<\/em>expands our notions of love and courtship in a way that I think is vital.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huda Al-Marashi\u2019s piece in\u00a0Love InshAllah\u00a0is an excerpt from a manuscript she\u2019s been working on for six years. She first started writing after September 11th, and relates her writing journey: \u201cI started writing scenes that spoke to the experience of growing up Muslim and American in California, but over time, I realized I was writing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[123,687,802,824,1007,1262,1575],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-inshallah-writers","tag-american-muslims","tag-islam","tag-love","tag-love-stories","tag-muslim-women","tag-relationships","tag-women-writers"],"yoast_head":"\nSpotlight: Huda Al-Marashi, memoirist, creative writing fellow and Love InshAllah contributor!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Huda Al-Marashi\u2019s piece in\u00a0Love InshAllah\u00a0is an excerpt from a manuscript she\u2019s been working on for six years. 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