The thing is, I was a late bloomer and had absolutely no interest in dating-what I knew of it, anyway, based on Molly Ringwald’s characters in John Hughes films like Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. Regardless of how chaste the event was, they had to be sure there wouldn’t be any boys present to tempt me down the path of loose women. My parents were so strict that I couldn’t go anywhere without their practically doing a background check on everyone who would be there. Zahra Noorbakhsh is a writer, actor and stand-up comedian. I knew that if my mom saw him, she would never trust me again and would confine me to the house for the rest of the summer. Oh, crap, I had forgotten about Ryan! There he was, walking with my girlfriends to the ticket booth.

My mother was dropping me off to go to the movies with Jen, Kim, Laura, and Ryan. My first year of high school was over, and summer was here. The Washington Post says the book 'erases preconceptions of what it must be like to be a Muslim woman in this country.'Īdvisory: There is explicit language in this excerpt Book Excerpt: 'Love, InshAllah' Edited By: Ayesha Mattu & Nura MaznaviĪn excerpt of the story 'The Birds, the Bees, and My Hole' by Zahra Noorbakhshįinally.

The selections include a story of an arranged marriage that turns out to be a love match, one of a lesbian who falls in love with another woman she'd met at a mosque, and Zahra Noorbakhsh's story of being given a graphic version of the birds and the bees talk by her Iranian-American mother.Īs Zahra Noorbakshsh tells Robin Young, 'I was really grossed out,' though eventually she came to see the wisdom of her mother's words. 'Muslim Women - We Just Can't Catch A Break.' That's the pitch line that editors Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi used to sell the idea of their book ' Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women.' It's an anthology of essays about love, dating and marriage written by Muslim American women.Īyesha Mattu tells Here & Now's Robin Young that they were looking for stories that were 'celebrating our unique context, but doing it in a way that people are able to able to connect to the universality of it.' Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi are co-editors of Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. Facebook Email This article is more than 10 years old.

Love, InshAllah by Nura Maznavi