As the month of Ramadan approaches I am filled with anxiety and tension. I feel excited and spiritually “high” but anxious nonetheless. I want to fast, but it scares me. In an off-guard moment I am inevitably transported back to high school, and afternoon drives between Stellenbosch and Cape Town; to the root of my unease. The untold neuroses – more...
It’s been two weeks since I wrote about Jehaan and her struggle, and while the comments were overwhelming (to say the least) most of the feedback I received was not made public. Some of it was not even said outright or to me directly, and a lot of it was snide. I want to say very unambiguously that I don’t apologise for a word of it. Domestic more...
Jehaan was the first Muslim woman I met. I mean really met. I met her to ask her about Islam; about her life as a Muslimah. Probably most importantly, I met her to ask why she embraced Islam almost a decade ago, because I could no longer contain and ignore my own questions. We met in the early days of the new year in 2009; I visited her home one evening. more...
