My first encounter with an anonymous memoir and I really enjoyed it. Lamya’s story is intensely personal in a way that is easy to connect and empathize with but is not ego-driven. Instead readers are indirectly invited to imagine that they could have any number of Lamyas in their friend groups, in their communities, anywhere around them who they might see walking down the street in a hijab and make endless number of assumptions about without ever knowing the complexities behind that person.

I loved how this book engaged with the ways in which the author’s faith and sexuality overlapped. I’ve come across several books, movies, and other pieces of media even from well-intentioned progressively minded creators who still perpetuate the idea that queerness and Islamic Observance cannot coexist.

Lamya though beautifully sees herself in the stories of the Quran and Hadith. Like plenty of others raised Muslim she imagines herself in the familiar stories of figures like The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Yufuf, Nuh, or Asiya and she can see her faith develop while acknowledging the truth of her whole identity. She can understand the notion of Allah as being neither male nor female…so why couldn’t that be the same for people too?