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Jamilah Lasalle was on the fast track on a bad path, until a coworker changed her life. In her story she shares, candidly, her troubled background and how learning about Islam and ultimately converting gave her a new life. At 14 years old, I had already taken my first puff of a cigarette, had been […]

Arshiya has worn hijab for nearly a decade, but has always struggled to find one that she felt comfortable in while being active. She used to wear homemade bandanas as a makeshift hijab, but quickly found that they were not effective for rigorous or long workouts. She was yearning for a product designed by someone

How do you make a feature film without Hollywood connections? According to filmmaker Lena Khan, the answer is serious hustle. She began with a Kickstarter campaign where she rallied the South Asian and Muslim communities to which she belongs, to write, direct, and produce The Tiger Hunter. The film, starring Danny Pudi and Jon Heder,

Naushaba Patel: A Queer Genderfluid Activist and Global Traveler Naushaba Patel shares her journey in this candid piece as a genderfluid Pakistani immigrant. She describes her life struggles regarding sexuality, cultural norms, and societal prejudices. As a queer genderfluid Pakistani immigrant Muslim who has lived under the international poverty line and in places with drive-bys

Mahomed is currently a medical school at the University of Toronto in Canada. She discusses her mixed identity as a half-Pakistani, half-Canadian – and the opportunities and challenges of belonging to two vastly different cultures. This story is part of a virtual exhibition, “I Am Mohammed”, produced by Narmeen Haider and Aanjalie Collure. The project

Afarin Majidi is an Iranian-American writer. She holds a BA in English Literature from Barnard College and an MFA in Fiction Writing from New School University. Writing and Madness in a Time of Terror is her debut memoir. Her novel-in-progress, Ziba, is set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.   As soon as the infantilizing

Jewell was born and raised in Tehran, Iran in 1989. As a member of a highly educated and secular family,  from an early age she questioned the restrictions imposed by Islamic dogma on women in Iran. Her natural curiosity and a desire to live in a free society, eventually led her to leave Iran. Cognizant

Mohammed is an Iraqi-American who lived in Baghdad until 2011, when he was accepted as a refugee to the United States. He started his career in journalism in 2008, shedding light on the ways corruption destroyed Iraq. He has since covered the Iraq war, rise of ISIS and other conflicts in the Middle East for

Zainab is an international student from Lahore, Pakistan who aspires to earn a law degree in the U.S. and represent marginalized women as an attorney in her hometown. Her work addresses the causes and trajectories of honor killings in Pakistan, and seeks to offer resources to those most closely affected by culturally sanctioned violence. Zainab

Rula Thabata was born in Palestine and raised in New Orleans. Studying Political Science and Sociology at Loyola University, she is passionate about social justice and the power of community to create substantial change. Interested in the relationship between religion and gender, she does research focused on faith and civic engagement. She is passionate about