Laila Sabreen

!WARNING: INCLUDES SPOILERS!

Laila Sabreen, congrats on writing a book like this! It was so fantastic and I felt so sad when the story ended. I loved the characters and I bonded with them. I'm a black American Christian girl, but I still loved and enjoyed this book because it highlights Islamophobia, online bullying, harassment, and struggles with identity that the teenagers face. Despite being far apart from each other, they are all connected through a blog titled You Truly Assumed, which is the title of the book as well.

I've seen many reviews complaining about characters and their development, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'll just list my take on the characters and their development.

Sabriya: A ballet dancer who is so very organized, living in Abbott, Virginia. She's a very busy yet ambitious teenager. She's clean, neat, likes to write, and plans everything. She's calm and timid, but she's a worrier. Bri is always pressuring herself to do better and is way too hard on herself, which is revealed in the first chapter. Throughout the book, she is anxious and keeps on losing hope because of the terrorist attack and seems to think that starting the blog is a stupid idea. With the website "Free the Right" attacking her blog with hateful comments and hacking it, and with Mr. Smith, head of volunteering, making microaggressive comments and even being part of the hateful "Free the Right" website. Eventually, she simply decides to take a break and returns, strong and determined. The terrorist attack does make Bri change slightly. She starts to accept that she isn't in control of every situation and that not everything can be planned, like her ballet classes and attending volunteer operations (sorry, that's what I call it). And in the end, she gets a "boyfriend", Hayat, someone she was opposed to in the beginning. Bri learns that unexpected events happen and that things change with time. She also learns to stop coming to conclusions and wait to see what certain events lead to.

Zakat: A more conservative hijabi Muslim who lives in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood that is accepting of all people. This place is rightly named "Lullwood", a fictional town in Georgia, a haven for black Muslims... until the terrorist attack. The masjid (or mosque), a place of prayer and gathering of Muslims, needs to be secured by a fence because of Islamophobic attacks targeting Muslim-owned spaces. Zakat is an artist, and even though her parents want her to follow in their footsteps and pick a "profitable" major, she can't suppress her love for art. Zakat is anxious, quiet, and timid, like Sabriya. She's easily intimidated by Islamophobic people and is nervous about writing for the blog. When she first joins, she prefers to present her art on the blog to inspire other Muslim black teens and young Muslim women, and she secretly does this because her parents don't approve. Throughout the book, Zakat changes a lot because of the terrorist attack and other Islamophobic acts such as the spray-paint incident at the Islamic boys' school and the stealing of the "Book of Secrets" from Aafreen's house. She becomes more confident in decision-making and learns that places can't always be the same as they were before and that Islamophobia can even enter the most peaceful communities, like Lullwood. She learns how to be more confident in herself and stops being so worried. She starts to feel more comfortable and confident by the end.

Farah: A diehard, tech-savvy basketball fan and coding student who's more liberal and has a boyfriend (who I assume is non-Muslim). Farah lives in Iglethorne, California, with her single mom and isn't exactly on great terms with her not-so-present father who's in Kirby, and it's time for her to go on a three-week trip to see him and his new family. As you can already tell, she's not so enthusiastic about it. When she first arrives, she's treated with affection by her new siblings, his two older stepkids, Ally and Samson, who take a liking to her. Her youngest sibling, Emma, is so adorable and the two do bond pretty well. But Farah doesn't get along with Jess, Tommy's new wife. (They've been married for a while and Tommy is Farah's biological father's name.) Unlike Sabriya and Zakat, Farah is more vocal and straightforward, and she speaks up and talks right away when Jess is opposed to Ally accompanying Farah to the vigil. Things are tense between Farah and Jess and Farah is equally as stubborn as Jess is. Opposed to Sabriya and Zakat, Farah prefers not to let people step over her toes and hurt her feelings, and she seems to be more vocal, not afraid of being stereotyped as an angry black girl or an aggressive Muslim. I love this about her. Her role in the You Truly Assumed blog is very crucial. By the end of the book though, Farah is much more friendly with her family in Kirby. She and Jess come to terms with each other, she loves her three siblings, and she's getting along with Tommy too, although she doesn't call him "Dad."

Overall, I like how this book didn't have a dramatic plot but still managed to keep me engaged. I loved the character development and seeing the characters change. Seeing Sabriya accept that not everything can be planned and controlled was a relief. Seeing Zakat gain more confidence in herself and become more bold was another relief. And seeing Farah willing to accept the challenge of long-distance dating and establish a relationship with her father and his new family was a relief as well.

Some people are complaining about the representation of Islam in this book. They're saying that the Muslim representation is "problematic" because it's Westernized and too liberal. Some think it's watered down and that there isn't enough proof that these three girls are actually Muslim except for their necklaces, charms, and calendars. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, and the way Muslims act in this book isn't very much Islamic. I'll explain.

I think the author is a liberal Muslim or either Westernized/modernized Islam so it wouldn't offend the audience. There were some things that didn't sit well with me, but I'm not going to take off stars because of that. (I grew up in Saudi Arabia but am not Muslim, so I may be wrong about some of these. Please let me know if I am.)

1. There is a non-labeled prayer room to make the mosque that Zakat goes to be more gender inclusive.

In most Muslim-majority nations, Saudi Arabia included, there is no such thing as gender inclusivity. People are either male or female and mosques have divisions for men and women only. In a majority of Islamic communities, being transgender, non-binary, or any other gender or than male or female can lead to arrest and jail sentencing too. From what I know from hearing Muslim scholars explain their religion to non-Muslims like me, Islam is not pro-LGBTQ, meaning there is no such thing as non-labeled prayer rooms for non-binaries, transgenders, and other genders. This leads me to my second concern.

2. A character has a physically intimate relationship with her (most likely non-Muslim) boyfriend.

From what I've heard from studious Muslim scholars, dating is mostly prohibited in Islam and a lot of Muslims practice "halal dating" which means dating with many rules and boundaries to avoid fornication or what is called "zina" in Islam. Farah and her boyfriend, Riley, are rather physically intimate, despite her being a Muslim. In addition to that, I'd like to add that I learned that Muslim men can marry non-Muslim women as long as they're practicing either Judaism or Christianity and that Muslim women must marry Muslim men, meaning Farah and Riley should break up and not take their relationship any further if Riley doesn't plan to convert to Islam. My next concern is related to relationships as well.

3. A character is in a lesbian relationship.

In Kirby, Farah meets a black Muslim girl by the name of Jamilah, who has a girlfriend. Same-sex relationships and all forms of homosexuality are haram (forbidden) in Islam, or that's what I have seen in Saudi Arabia and many Muslim-majority nations. I've read articles on people getting executed in Muslim-majority countries after being caught getting intimate with a person of the same gender.

4. A character is a female imam.

In the story, Zakat goes into the masjid and is met by Imam Farhad, who is a female imam who's about ten years older than Zakat, making her twenty-seven years old. She's a very kind, calm, collected, and wise woman. I like the advice Imam Farhad gives and how she treats Zakat like a daughter and listens to her worries. However, women aren't permitted to become imams in many traditional Islamic communities, which makes this kind of confusing for me. I've never heard of a female imam in Saudi Arabia or any surrounding countries, and many of the studious Islamic educators on YouTube and Islamic websites have explained that a woman can't lead prayers in mixed-gender settings but can teach other women. (Maybe Imam Farhad specifically leads prayers in the women's section?)

If any of the points I made above are incorrect, please let me know. The least of my intentions is to spread misinformation about a religion I do not practice. I loved this book and appreciate the author who wrote this, and I congratulate and applaud Sabreen for taking a stand and spreading awareness about Islamophobia and what Muslims face in Western countries, especially in the USA, a country with a lot of Islamophobia and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment after 9/11. I would recommend You Truly Assumed to young black Muslim teens looking for novels they can relate to.

✨Thank you for reading this review!✨… (altro)

TW: racism, anti-Muslim hate, online harassment

teen fiction - three Black Muslim teen girls (high school seniors--a writer/dancer, an artist, and a computer programmer) from different parts of the US collaborate on a blog that starts as one girl's self expression (not meant to be published publicly) but becomes a place for others to feel seen and heard, only to become the targets of alt-right hate and harassment (both on and offline).

Nice to see a couple of the trolls get unmasked, though there might not turn out to be any consequences for the vandalism realistically. It was also nice to see the victims of the online hate band together--the different communities working together and becoming stronger in the process. The ending may have been simpler and happier than what might typically happen IRL, but it still made me happy to see.… (altro)

If I were to teach a high school course called "History Through YA Fiction," this book would be among those I'd use. It blends friendship, family, courage, and identity extremely well while also giving readers a gutsy and jarring trip through what many in America face on a regular basis-Ugly racism and bigotry. In this book, three Black Muslim girls from different parts of the U.S. come together online following a terrorist bombing of a Washington, DC Metro station. When Sabriya's sister reads what she's written out of frustration, fear, and anger following the attack, she convinces her to post it online. Neither sister realizes it has gone viral. When Zakat in a small city near Atlanta reads it, she immediately identifies with the words. So does Farah, a computer geek in California. As they work to make the blog better, all three face pushback, first from an online hate group that targets their blog, then from a storm of hateful blog comments. How they handle their collective and individual fear and anger makes for a terrific read.… (altro)

"It's scary that names can speak for someone before they're given the chance to open their mouth. Names can decide between who lives and dies. Between who can live in peace and who has to live in fear. Between those who can tell their own story and those whose stories are assumed before they can pick up the pen."

You Truly Assumed by Laila Sabreen is a debut novel that blew me away. The story is told from the POV's of Sabriya, Zakat & Farah, 3 Black Muslim girls who become online friends after a terrorist attacks sparks anti-Islamic hate in their communities. Each one has unique challenges. I really loved the strong writing & development of each perspective which allowed us to become fully invested in each girl and provided a safe space to explore the incidents of Islamophobia, racism and the erasure of Black Muslims. This one left me with so much to reflect on. The key themes that stayed with me were:

▪︎assumptions & associations made about names
▪︎ rampant Islamophobia in this country
▪︎ how the intersection of blackness with Islam is erased
▪︎ how Muslims are stereotyped & face daily micoragressions
▪︎ how interfaith families can model tolerance & acceptance
▪︎ how the role of allies must always be an active one
▪︎ how being racist is not a "phase"
▪︎ how vicious social media hate is towards Black women, especially Muslim ones
▪︎ how important safe spaces are

Thanks to @inkyardpress for the gifted copy. I cannot wait to read more from Sabreen. Do yourselves a favor and pick up a copy of this book because this story is compelling and needs to get all the love it deserves. Black Muslim girls need to be able to tell their own stories.… (altro)