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Hijab Butch Blues
304 pages
A deeply intimate memoir in essays that beautifully intertwines queer coming-of-age with a profound, personal reinterpretation of faith.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir in essays feels like sitting with a close friend as they unravel the complexities of their most deeply held truths. The pace is steady and contemplative, allowing the reader to fully absorb the searingly intimate reflections on faith, queerness, and the immigrant experience. It carries a searching, vulnerable mood that gradually brightens into something profoundly uplifting and hopeful. The prose weaves personal milestones from a childhood in the Middle East to early adulthood in New York City with thoughtful, liberating reinterpretations of sacred texts. It is a courageous, earnest journey of self-discovery that will deeply resonate with anyone who has ever sought to reconcile their spirituality with their authentic identity, ultimately celebrating the triumph of finding true belonging.
- Mood
- contemplative
- searching
- uplifting
- vulnerable
- Tone
- earnest
- intimate
- reflective
- courageous
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- queer identity and faith · finding belonging · immigrant experience · reinterpreting scripture
- The writing
- Searingly intimate and deeply reflective, weaving personal narrative with thoughtful theological exploration.
- The arc
- Moves from feeling hidden and out of place to a triumphant, self-assured embrace of a queer, devout identity.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking a vulnerable, faith-affirming memoir about the intersection of queer identity, immigration, and devout spirituality.
Content notes
- isolation
- closeting
About the book
When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: when Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be... like Lamya?
From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own—ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant.
This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life. --randomhousebooks.com
Description from Open Library.
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