Mohja Kahf

"Mohja Kahf, an Arab-American writer, draws sharp, funny, earthy portraits of the fault line separating Muslim women from their Western counterparts. At times she captures the breach in a single title, like her poem built around respecting prayer rituals, called ‘My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears.’
Occasionally it just takes a few lines, as in ‘Hijab Scene #2,’ a poem that reads in its entirety: ‘You people have such restrictive dress for women,’ she said, hobbling away in three inch heels and panty hose to finish out another pink-collar temp pool day. Sometimes it's a whole book, particularly her novel published last year, ‘The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf,” a coming-of-age tale set in Indiana, where Ms. Kahf spent much of her own childhood. The novel turned Ms. Kahf into something of an idol among Muslim American women, especially younger ones, struggling to reconcile their faith with a country often hostile toward it.” She Carries Weapons; They Are Called Words. By Neil Macfarquhar

Virgil has read The Girl In The Tangerine Scarf and liked it a lot. Virg & Mary, and about twenty other heathens, met with Mohja and grilled her for a several hours. She has spunk. Normally, Virgil hates spunk, but not in this case. We found her to be brilliant, knowledgeable, tolerant, witty, and unflappable.

See, also, A Woman True to Herself.

Credit for photo of Mohja Kahf at Arsaga's: Lorraine Chittock, PADIA, and Saudi Aramco World.