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At nine years old, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh watched from her home in New Jersey as two planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That same year, she heard her first racial slur. At thirteen, her family took a trip to her father's native homeland of Jordan, and Amani experienced firsthand a culture built on the true peaceful nature of Islam in its purest form, not the Islamic stereotypes she heard on the news.
Inspired by her trip and after years of feeling like her voice as a Muslim woman was marginalized during a time when it seemed all Western media could talk about was, ironically, Muslim women, Amani created a website called Muslim Girl. As the editor-in-chief, she put together a team of Muslim women and started a life dedicated to activism.
Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age is the extraordinary account of Amani's journey through adolescence as a Muslim girl, from the Islamophobia she's faced on a daily basis, to the website she launched that became a cultural phenomenon, to the nation's political climate in 2016 as Donald Trump wins the presidency. While dispelling the myth that a headscarf signifies neither radicalism nor oppression, she shares both her own personal accounts and anecdotes from the "sisterhood" of writers that serve as her editorial team at Muslim Girl. Amani's "blunt...potent message...is a skillful unraveling of the myth of the submissive Muslim woman" (The New York Times Book Review) and a deeply necessary counterpoint to the current rhetoric about the Middle East.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 18, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781501159527
- File size: 934 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781501159527
- File size: 886 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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The founder of Muslimgirl.com writes a searing memoir of her young life as a Muslim-American girl growing up in an era of Islamophobia.Beginning with a wise warning about the dangers of using a "single story" to define a minority group, Al-Khatahtbeh takes readers on a memorable journey chronicling her development from childhood to womanhood. Al-Khatahtbeh was 9 years old when the twin towers fell. Both the national tragedy and the backlash against Muslims deeply affected her developing sense of identity. Growing up in New Jersey, spending her 13th year in her father's native Jordan, donning the hijab upon returning to the United States, and post-college work experiences with media outlets culminated in her full-time focus on the necessary work of highlighting Muslim women's voices. The development of her brainchild, the collaborative blog and media outlet muslimgirl.com, takes center stage in the second half of the book. Her work has inspired many, and now the story of how she arrived at it can inspire as well. The occasional lack of narrative flow barely detracts from the vital message this book brings to the national conversation. Al-Khatahtbeh's perspective details the impact of our political climate on the identities of our youth and demonstrates the need for outlets like the one she founded. Part political essay, part open love letter to little girls growing up afraid to claim their identities, this fresh memoir is an important read for Americans of all backgrounds.
COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)
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