The Library, with Adeeba Jafri

LITERATURE The Library, with Adeeba Jafri

BY SABA ALI

Islamic Horizons’ new section, The Library, will showcase the work of new and emerging authors and artists to provide our readers with a peek into their lives through a Q&A with IH board member Saba Ali.

In this issue, we share the work of Adeeba Jafri, who just published her first novel, a fiction for teenagers: “Show Yourself” (2021). She has also written children’s books, including “The Baby Garden,” “The Path that Allah Made,” “Alia and the Story of the Rose,” and her most recent release “A Zoom with a View.”

SA: Adeeba, you and I were friends during our teenage years. We lost touch, so I was so excited to find out that you have published a novel. Can you start off by catching me up on yourself and your work?

AJ: I’m a writer and high school social studies teacher from New York, currently based in Doha, Qatar. I have four children (ages 14-21) and am a certified IB (International Baccalaureate) coordinator. The IB is designed for inquiry-based learning. Although the curriculum can run from ages 3-18, I work primarily with those 11th-12th graders interested in completing the DP (Diploma Program). In a nutshell, it’s a rigorous and highly structured curriculum for 11th-12th graders who want to earn college credit both here and abroad. As a coordinator, I have experience in administering and running the program.

During my 12-year sojourn abroad, I’ve taught Islamic studies courses to Muslim expat teens and tweens. Despite living in a Muslim country, teenagers have few opportunities to receive an Islamic studies education. The curriculum administered in most schools is meant to accommodate citizens, not expats. Within a year of moving to Qatar, I took it upon myself to teach children from my home. One weekly class became two or three weekly classes. During the [Covid-19] pandemic, these classes moved online and began to include students from all around the world.

SA: What was it like as a parent to move from the U.S. to Doha? How did you and your family adjust?

AJ: We moved to Doha in 2009 when my husband secured a job at one of the region’s main oil and gas companies. My children were all young (my oldest was eight, and my

Adeeba Jafri youngest had just turned two). I was very nervous about raising them without the close friends and family support that we were used to. But God is the best of planners (3:54). My cousin, who was living in Doha at the time, and her husband were incredibly helpful in explaining the different processes in the

Middle East, among them how to get SIM cards and identification cards. They even helped us move into the compound where they were living. We connected with other families with young children, and once I saw that my children were happy, I felt content.

We’ve been in Qatar now for over 12 years.

SA: I really loved reading your new book

“Show Yourself.” You did a really great job of narrating sibling relationships. Can you tell us why you felt it was important to focus on them and how much of it was pulled from your own life?

AJ: During the past decade, I’ve worked extensively with Muslim expat teens and tweens. Nearly all the books’ characters reflect the different relationships I’ve witnessed. The playful tension between Lena and her brother is commonplace in our own home; my daughter would agree wholeheartedly that her younger brothers are fun to be around but sometimes really annoying! The relationship between

Hana and her sister was inspired by my own daughter. It would hurt me, as a mother, when I would see her being unintentionally ignored by other girls who were distracted by their cellphones. I developed Sara with her in mind, wondering “What would happen if the girl who was ignored had a real problem? How long can it go unchecked?”

SA: How are the lives of expat teens and tweens different from their counterparts living in the U.S.?

AJ: Their lives are very different.

For example, they have more opportunities to travel and explore new places.

They are more mature in some ways, as they’ve been exposed to different cultures. However, they have less of a connection to their “home country.” They may have been born in one country, lived in another country and are being schooled in yet another country. They’re used to moving from one place to another, so they generally lack a consistent group of friends on whom they can rely. At the same time, these teens and tweens are usually closer to their immediate family.

A lot of times, Muslim expat teens and tweens have less of a connection to their faith. Their Islamic studies and Quran education may have been disrupted on multiple occasions. I’ve taught students in their early teens who haven’t grasped the basics of prayer or know the sirah because they’ve moved around so much. Knowing that I might teach a child (on average) for about six months and then never see him or her again, my courses have always been more about forging connections with their faith,

and less about knowledge. If they have that spiritual connection, they’ll be more open to gaining that knowledge later on.

SA: In your book’s acknowledgment, you tell your own children this book was for “all for you.” What do you want your children to know about your work?

AJ: My daughter inspired my first three published books. At the time, I was constantly looking for books with Islamic content and kept coming up short. I was particularly looking for books that could answer preschoolers’ questions from an Islamic perspective. I was expecting my second child at the time, and I wanted a book that would simply answer the question “Where do babies come from?” This inspired me to publish “The Baby Garden,” followed by “Alia and the Story of the Rose,” which answers the question “Why does my mother wear the hijab?”

My children were very young then, so they have no recollection of what my writing process looked like. The [Covid-19] lockdown was really the first time they saw me work as a writer. They now know that my process is all over the place! They got used to seeing their mom surrounded by books, laptop open while I was in the kitchen (in case I got an idea) and even got used to having me pull the car over to jot something down. One of the best moments I had was when I walked into my daughter’s room and saw that she had started writing a book as well. It’s important to me that now they know what their mom looks like as a writer. And if that’s a path that they eventually come across, then the process of writing the book in front of them was all for them.

SA: It’s hard enough getting adults to talk about feelings and mental illness. Given that you work with teenagers, how do you get children to talk to each other or to an adult when they need help?

AJ: I’m definitely not an expert on how to help teenagers who may be suffering from a mental health illness. I do, however, know what it’s like to be ignored or overlooked in the face of technology. I saw it on my daughter’s face every time she was around her childhood friends, and I see it in the hallway when walking down the corridors of the high school at which I currently work. The first step to getting children to talk to one another or an adult is acknowledging their presence. This seems like an impossible feat for teenagers who are easily distracted. But actually putting their phones aside and really looking at one another, talking face to face, is the first step toward forging a connection.

SA: This is your first book for this age group, but how long have you been writing about Aliya, Lena and Hana?

AJ: The first step to writing a book is picking and developing characters to such an extent that you come to love them. I initially conceived of Lena as someone based on my own niece, who is named Lena and loves to play basketball. Aliya is loosely based on my experiences of seeing my mother struggle with depression and not having anyone to go to for help.

In the initial outline, Aliya was the one who struggled for help; however, I eventually chose Sara to be the character who is struggling to “show herself.” As a writer, I purposely pushed her out of the main plot. She only shows up in sections here and there, and as a character she is quite forgettable. Her placement throughout the book is a metaphor of her struggle: a desire to come into the light and be acknowledged by her sister.

Interested readers can contact Adeeba Jafri on Twitter (adeeba_jafri), Instagram (adeebajafri_official), Facebook (Dessert in the Desert) and adeebajafri.com. ih