Exploring Faith, Feminism, Sexuality, and Race Through the Eyes of Muslim Women: It's Not Just About the Burqa

Brenda Díaz: Good 4 starters

Mexico on Jun 25, 2023

Fraseb: Fait la job

Canada on Apr 08, 2023

Aisha N: This book includes 17 essays from Muslim women. I loved 8/17 essays. The others were not to my taste or included ideas/perspective that I did not agree with. Nonetheless, this is a great insight into Muslim women's experiences in the West. A great opportunity for Muslim women to be heard.

United Kingdom on Mar 03, 2023

alicia gonzalezalicia gonzalez: It came in early, but it was damaged. A little disappointed.

United States on Aug 28, 2022

Tea Leaves and Reads: A collection of essays that has everything – warmth, humour and the ability to floor you with a few lines, humble you with a paragraph, banish your misconceptions with a word or two. There’s sadness, anger, despair…but the running theme throughout all of the essays is the passion from every Author.

“And if they give us the mic to speak, we build our own stage. I was never a fan of their stage anyway: how correct it stood, how sturdy and mute, how cold it was…”

– Raifa Rafiq

The essays are very different – exploring body image, divorce, marriage, mental health and so on. All essays though, call time on misogyny and lazy stereotypes. They remind you that everyone has an identity and it’s made up of hundreds and hundreds of different things.

United Kingdom on Apr 30, 2022

Book Lover: “We need as many stories and storytellers as there are people, a greater cacophony of diverse voices and views, and listeners who welcome them.” Quoted from the last storyteller....I enjoyed listening and learning from all these diverse perspectives on being Muslim women.

United States on Dec 26, 2020

jwintle: Just finished reading this book and feel as though I've had quite an education on the independence, intelligence, vulnerability, and feelings of many Muslim women. Basically, women's mental, physical, and emotional needs and yearnings are the same worldwide. I don't have the impression that any of the essay authors actually wears a burqa, though most have chosen to wear a hijab, i.e, head scarf, and dress modestly. And that choice was made from their understanding of what is required for them to be in a right relationship with God and to honor their own person.

United States on Dec 15, 2019

laura: essential read to anyone willing to learn what being a muslim woman in the west is. By muslim women, to all of us.

United States on Jun 02, 2019

NeelamNeelam: As soon as I first heard about this anthology being published, I knew I had to buy it as soon as it released. A book that is written by Muslim women about their experiences? Yup I need it! Just reading the introduction had me hooked!

It’s not about the burqa brings together Muslim women’s voices. It does not represent the experiences of every Muslim woman or claim to cover every single issue faced by Muslim women. It’s not possible to create that book. But this book is a start, a movement: we Muslim women are reclaiming and rewriting our identity.

Each essay is so powerful that even though some were more relatable than others I still loved them all because they all dealt with issues that I can relate to. They discuss so many relevant issues that Muslim women deal with, especially living in the west, from misogyny, racism to islamophobia and taboo subjects in the community and how each of them has been affected by it and how they dealt with it.

While reading the essays I would often stop and need to go talk to my husband about the topics that were being discussed. It reignited my passion about speaking out about so many issues that are so common with our...

United Kingdom on Apr 14, 2019