Put Muslim characters who don’t need ‘saving’ on school reading lists
July 24, 2017
As the film industry begins to heed criticisms from places like the “Oscars So White” movement, the advocacy of groups like We Need Diverse Books, with its mission to offer children more books that reflect them and their lives, is making waves in publishing, too.
Over the past year, books written by people of colour featuring multicultural characters made the New York Times young adult best-sellers list.
My research into diversity and literature – specifically representations of Muslims therein – indicates this isn’t a passing trend. Racialised writers are being charged with writing their own narratives and consumers are indicating their desire to read them.
In fact, education researchers have long touted the benefits of using culturally relevant materials and lesson plans in North American classrooms to reflect a real student body. Students are diverse: they come from different races and religions; their orientations and genders vary. Their reading materials should reflect such diversity.
Teachers hoping to foster inclusivity and equitable practices in their classrooms realise when schooling speaks to all, it can lead to more democratic spaces and, by extension, a more just society.
But culturally relevant materials are hard to find — not only because culture itself is a complex and nuanced entity, but also because the materials themselves don’t typically exist in white mainstream platforms.
Muslim characters often portrayed as victims
Children’s stories either written by Muslim writers or featuring Muslim main characters are typically nonexistent or problematic in their representations of Muslim experiences.
This becomes a problem when it comes to creating a school curriculum that truly reflects our society. Materials available to upper/middle grade and high school English teachers generally reinforce negative stereotypes.
Take, for instance, The Breadwinner (Ellis, 2000), about an Afghani girl under the Taliban who has to dress up as a boy to support her family. It is frequently found on book lists in Canadian classrooms in an attempt to be inclusive. Yet putting the book on such lists misses the mark.
An analysis of the novel reveals its focus as primarily on the real or imagined plight of “othered” females. That is, this novel, along with others like it, divides the world into a typical “us” and “them” model, as defined in 1978 by cultural critic Edward Said. The novel ends up reinforcing the stereotype of Muslim girls as needing to be saved. Therefore, this is not an empowering narrative for young girls.
Plight narratives, such as the one in The Breadwinner, are problematic because they enact a “care ethic” central to the project and history of schooling in the West. It reinforces colonial relations between coloniser and the “inferior,” colonised “other.” In other words, novels written about a “far away victim” Western readers need to “save” isn’t a very authentic character representation of the everyday experiences for most young North Americans.
In my research interviews, some students report enjoying such literature but feeling confused about the terrible representations of themselves as Muslim women. These are high level and confusing problems for middle-school children who are still forming their identities. Research shows young people need to see themselves positively reflected in the books they read.
As well, my research into the responses of young Muslim women to 1000 Splendid Suns (Hosseini, 2007) — another novel about Afghani women treated badly — reveals a troubling trend: Muslim girls reading this novel in Grade 8 classrooms were disturbed by the book.
For example, a student in a Toronto-area school told me that, as someone who wears the hijab, references to the burqa in the novel and the inhumane oppression of Muslim women had her non-Muslim classmates feeling either pity for her or ridiculing her culture. The sad part, she said, was that the book was not at all true to her own experiences as a young Muslim woman in Canada. Instead of enhancing her classmates’ understanding of her, she felt the book contributed to her feelings of alienation.
An exciting solution: Salaam Reads and Saints and Misfits
So, what’s a well-intentioned teacher looking to incorporate culturally relevant and sustaining materials in her classrooms to do? In a time when Islamophobic and racist sentiments abound, how might teachers help to counter the negative and harmful rhetoric and real-life harm that’s being done?
Simon and Shuster’s “Salaam Reads” imprint is an exciting solution. Founded in 2016, it “aims to introduce readers of all faiths and backgrounds to a wide variety of Muslim children and families and offer Muslim kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected positively in published works.”
Saints and Misfits is its first contemporary offering. Published this spring, written by Toronto-based author S.K. Ali, it is a good fit for educators looking for recommendations on what would be a good book to put on their syllabuses.
The book features the nuanced life, struggles and joys of a Muslim main character. The main character, Janna, is a 15-year-old who loves Flannery O’Connor, photography and her black pashmina hijabs because it’s her “feel-good colour.”
On a personal level, this book took me back to many of my own experiences as a young woman growing up in Winnipeg’s Muslim community. More importantly, my 13-year-old daughter told me she would love to share it with non-Muslim peers in her literature circles at school.
I don’t mean to imply Saints and Misfits is the one representative work for the experiences of all young Muslim women. But the book is an excellent choice. And the “Salaam Reads” imprint plans to publish eight other books for young readers featuring Muslim characters. It is a hopeful solution for teachers who endeavour to bring culturally relevant books into their classrooms.
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By Heba Elsherief, PhD Candidate, Language and Literacies Education, University of Toronto
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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Now for my two cents. One penny, two penny. Goodbye.
Okay obviously that's not all. But I just wanted to remind you guys how important this is and why we as Muslim writers (well most of my readers and me) need to work on getting some good stories out there with proper representations of our people. Right now, the media only gives two types: the brutal terrorist or the poor, helpless Muslim(ah) living in a "backwards" society (often showcasing only the worst of our diverse cultures and lands) and needing to be saved by the western world.
That's unacceptable.
We need to do better. We need to take charge and represent ourselves. Get some works featuring Muslims in a good and wholesome light. I'm not saying the stories need to be preachy or just a puff piece on some perfect Muslims living in a utopian society or something. No, but give something good.
Make it a relatable story, tell your story, bring us your world, and show what it's like. Wherever you live, east or west. Tell a good story.
I'm not going to get into bashing clichés right now (but don't tempt me or I will). I just want to say don't swap out Jessica for Jamilah and think your story is unique. Get creative and show the world a narrative like no other. Don't just give us a pity party or have poor innocent Aminah rescued by handsome ceo Amerigo McWest. And don't worsen the situation with some edgy baddie mc rebel story about a Muslim breaking all the rules. That's not helpful, believe me. Nor is it worth it.
But do focus on good stories. Don't make bland characters whose sole quality is that they're a Muslim. Make them interesting. Give them a unique narrative to follow and use your creative voice to tell the story in a way that will entrap your readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Give us something that will educate and inspire. Something fellow Muslims can relate to, and Non-Muslims will read to understand us. Something that'll start a dialogue.
And don't be afraid to venture into various categories and genres. Romance and thrillers aren't the only places you can delve into. Every story doesn't have to be about an arranged marriage or forced situation due to ceo promises and servitude; nor must they be about how this hijabi got kidnapped by some gangsters and falls for the leader or something.
You can write a Muslim-centered scifi, or adventure, or fantasy, or comedy or horror (both within limits of course). And I say Muslim-centered because I know some people avoid writing "Islamic fiction" because they think it's too preachy or they feel it's not their place to delve much into religious beliefs and all that. Some people here have put notes on their works that it merely features Muslims but isn't a book about Islam. Fine. Won't argue about that right now.
But for Muslim-centered stories, your characters don't have to be overtly Islamic and such. The focus of the story doesn't have to be to spread Islam. You can still write a good story, with a captivating plot and intriguing characters that are Muslim and have their unique quirks, and it doesn't have to transgress Islamic boundaries. And, what's more is, the story can have an Islamic undertone that subliminally conveys an Islamic message or features good values and morals either through characters or lessons. There are so many ways to make it work and none of them need to be in-your-face. Doesn't have to be a reversion story to teach about Islam.
And it is now 2:15am so I'm going to end this. But I seriously hope anyone reading this seriously considers getting serious about seriously publishing some real stories with good, wholesome characters to represent the diverse lives of Muslims around the world. Please don't leave our representation in the hands of people who either don't like us, don't understand us, or both. Put out some stories with Muslim characters who don't need saving...
-Desert_Son