Muslim Girl Reflection
Al-Khatahtbeh does an incredible job of putting readers in her own shoes in her book Muslim Girl A Coming of Age. The book starts out discussing post-911 and how this detrimentally affect how society viewed Muslims, relating Hijabs to terrorism. The book develops as the young Al-Khatahtbeh starts to see her religion as something she became ashamed of. In only middle school she stopped celebrating her religion and started trying to conceal it in an attempt to stop the bullying and prejudice that her peers and adults imposed upon her. Throughout the book we as readers are able to grow with Amani Al-Khatahtbeh and see how her views of the world and herself shift. You see Amani go from dreading wearing her Hijab to wearing it with extreme confidence.
The author of this book does something incredible when it comes to structure and how this book was written. Al-Khatahtbeh uses a really “talking to a friend” tone as a way of getting her ideas out to her readers. The structure is chronological on the basis that it started out from the author’s viewpoint as a child then progressed as she became older. When this book was written, I think it’s purpose was to expose people to the experiences of a muslim women post 9/11 and to allow readers to gain a deeper understanding of Muslims. The writing related to a lot of minorities as well as females, but I think the audience was meant to be anyone that lacked knowledge of the injustices that were put on Muslims. Yes, I believe there is multiple reasons for this book including trying to decrease ignorance about racism in America, give muslim women a feeling that they are not alone and they are understood, and for Muslims to have their own story rather than just how mass media portrays them.
A main focal point in this book is racism, and it’s prominence today. How people see a single story of one person and use it describe an entire group, or religion in this case. The way that Al-Khatahtbeh creates new narratives for muslim-women is simply by telling her own truth. She does this by showing her own experiences and by proving mass media wrong and saying “this is how it actually happened”. This book also provides a deeper understanding of all minorities, using the main idea that there is no single story to describe an entire group.
“Set aside the hypersexualization of the hymen as connected to virginity or any signifier of sexual activity, the assumption that a women’s sexuality is anyone else business, the cultural and often religious connection of virginity with chastity, and our obsession with chastity as being a reflection of a woman’s worth” (Al-Khatahtbeh 127). This text reminded me of something I saw earlier in the book. “Iran’s honor police enforce that all women wear a headscarf in public, while today’s French laws forbid the veil in public schools. It’s funny how, in our patriarchal world, even two entities at opposite ends of the spectrum can be bonded by their treatment of women’s bodies. Sexism has been employed in many ways throughout history to uphold racism” (Al-Khatahtbeh 42). She ties in how sexism and racism sometimes go hand-in-hand. This stood out to me because I’ve dealt with sexism and being sexualized but I’ve never thought of it in regards to race, because my skin is white. I think it’s also allows me to relate to the author on a more personal level and this creates a more powerful message to me. This is an incredible read and it’s a very eye-opening experience. I’d recommend it to everyone.
​
Work Cited
Al-Khatahtbeh, Amani. Muslim Girl: a Coming of Age. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2017.