‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
The Loneliness of a New City is Bittersweet: A Love Letter from London to Mumbai
London felt lonelier. To invoke Laing once again, ‘Loneliness, I began to realise, was a populated place: a city in itself. And when one inhabits a city, even a city as rigorously and logically constructed as Manhattan, one starts by getting lost’. Without a lover to call this city mine I was alone in a visible manner. On days I felt I wore it on my coats…
(Un)Settling In: Building a Home Away from Home as a Foreign Student
Graduating as a foreign student and settling in as a new immigrant is a unique transition experience. One has the opportunity to carefully construct a future yet embrace the challenges that come with being away from home. I can describe this journey as being aboard two boats with one leg in each. The expectations, values and dreams from home sail parallel to the hope, joy and excitement for a new land…
‘Palestinian is an Ethnicity, Not a Political Statement’: Coming-of-age as a Palestinian in Diaspora
There comes a sense of separation from our physical environment. Through our blood, we inherit love and care for our country, but we are born into a space where people hardly know what Palestine is. To care so passionately for a struggle that we cannot interact with while being surrounded by people who know nothing about it is frustrating and isolating. From this stems feelings of guilt. Being submerged in a world that cares little about the Palestinian struggle can feel like an act of betrayal…
‘I Celebrate the Tapestry of Places that have Made Me Who I Am’: The Highs and Lows of Being a Third Culture Kid
I had spent my childhood learning how to mould myself into the most acceptable, most unassuming version of myself. Underneath the people-pleasing and the desire to fit in, I had no idea who I was. So much of my Indian identity had been buried away under shame and resentment, and I looked at any American tendency I had with contempt. Meanwhile, every influence from China felt like something that I didn’t have the right to claim…