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{"id":564,"date":"2012-01-18T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveinshallah\/?p=564"},"modified":"2014-11-03T11:19:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T18:19:11","slug":"spotlight-leila-khan-love-inshallah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/loveinshallah\/2012\/01\/18\/spotlight-leila-khan-love-inshallah\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: Leila Khan: Lawyer, writer and Love InshAllah contributor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ Leila Khan was born in Pakistan and has lived in various countries in Asia and Europe before settling in the US at the age of 11. \u00a0A lawyer by training and profession, her writing has largely been academic, in the form of book\u00a0reviews, law review comments, and chapters in books. \u00a0A couple of years ago, she joined a writing group and\u00a0\u00a0started writing about her life experience of searching for belonging as a Pakistani, Muslim woman who spent most of her life in the West; this broader search for home and belonging was inextricably intertwined with the search for love and acceptance.<\/p>\n

An excerpt from Leila\u2019s story, \u201cRerouting\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt\u00a0frantic as I thought about my sister\u2019s \u201cperfect\u201d situation. She had\u00a0met her fianc\u00e9 at her local mosque\u2019s youth group. He was Pakistani,\u00a0a practicing Muslim, and fluent in Urdu. Check, check, and\u00a0check. And he was an engineer. Yet another check. My Pakistani,\u00a0Muslim, Urdu-speaking parents were thrilled. The only wrinkle\u00a0was me, the unmarried older sister. My parents initially contemplated\u00a0holding off on my sister\u2019s wedding until someone could be\u00a0found for me, but, given my track record of refusing suitors, they\u00a0decided to move forward with her wedding. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I\u2019d like to go to the wedding with you,\u201d he said.\u00a0My stomach sank. My parents were devout, practicing Muslims.\u00a0My entire extended family was. How could I show up with my\u00a0Italian, Catholic boyfriend to a wedding full of Pakistanis and\u00a0religious ritual? How would he react to the significant number of\u00a0women who wore head scarves and the few who were covered in\u00a0the chador? How would they respond to him? Luca\u2019s appearance\u00a0at this wedding would be uncomfortable for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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

What drew you to this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I heard about Love Insh\u2019Allah<\/em>, I realized that this search for love and acceptance confronts many of us, and a collection of stories would reveal how varied the journeys have been.\u00a0 I realized that sharing my experience and the boundaries I had crossed along the way, boundaries my culture and faith demarcated as those not to cross, would provide some insight on one way in which such transgressions can unfold.\u00a0 I am not cautioning anyone or advising anyone not to make the choices I did, I\u2019m simply sharing my experience.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re writing under a pen name, why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pen name felt most appropriate to preserve the privacy of my family, \u201cLuca,\u201d and my professional life.<\/p>\n

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

We can be wrong about the person we love, that things can fall apart very quickly, and, well, that\u2019s part of the journey in search of love.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean we failed or that if we had tried harder it would have worked.\u00a0 It also doesn\u2019t mean we should never take risks or love someone we were told we shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m very excited about being part of this anthology.\u00a0 I think the perceptions of Muslim women, including American Muslim women, as submissive, desexualized, and lacking autonomy are pervasive.\u00a0 I think our stories will show how wrong those perceptions are, and will illuminate both how we see ourselves and how we wish to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"