“Hijab Butch Blues” Review

Misael Morales | Writer

Ever wonder what it is like to struggle between your sexual orientation and your religion? This is a coming-of-age story about a Muslim woman named Lamya living in New York City who is also a lesbian. I found this story interesting because I never heard of that perspective before. Lamya does a brilliant job of making parallels between stories from “The Quran” and her life as a queer woman.

One of the details about the book that I admire is the soul-searching of trying to self-love. Lamya shares the difficulties of bringing people into her life due to the insecurities between her faith and her sexual orientation. She ultimately pushes people away and explains the problems that they present, until finally realizing that she might be the problem. After making changes to her perspective of people and love, she starts to open up. Lamya eventually finds her own community that makes her feel welcomed and accepted.

My biggest takeaway from this book is that finding your tribe is essential to life. No matter how unique your problems might feel, there is someone out there going through a similar experience as you. You just have to find them, and when you do you can navigate through these situations together. In the case of Lamya, it was self-love and acceptance.