Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H
Lamya H's memoir teases out the latent queerness of their Muslim faith, discovering stories of rebel women whose strength, resilience and faith offer inspiration
Wherever she goes, Lamya is an outsider. A South Asian teenager in a Middle Eastern country, a queer person in a conservative Muslim family and a woman of faith in largely white, non-religious queer spaces in the United States.
But from a young age, Lamya’s personal faith leads her to find queer resonances in stories from the Quran. Stories in which she sees herself, and in which she feels at home. Mohammed’s fear of backlash and social exile when he begins to preach Islam recalls the experience of coming out: who can we trust to hold this profound truth? Who will not turn away? The story of Yunus and the whale prompts a lesson about when to protect ourselves and retreat from conflict, when others are unwilling to treat us with respect. And then there are the stories of Maryam, Hajar and Asiyah – rebel women whose strength, resilience and faith offer inspiration to those, like Lamya, who seek social justice for themselves and others.
Unflinchingly honest, Hijab Butch Blues (a reference to Leslie Feinberg's queer classic Stone Butch Blues) is a gracefully-wrought memoir about the importance of community, faith and family in a world that is so often unwilling to accept and celebrate each of us in our beautiful complexity.
Icon Books, 2 Feb