Randa Abdel-Fattah

When Michael Met Mina

"At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I can't keep it up for much longer..." Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's afraid to let them know her dad forbids her from hanging out with boys or that she secretly loves to play the darabuka (Arabic drums). But when the cutest boy in school asks her out and her friends start to wonder about Jamie's life outside of school, her secrets threaten to explode. Can Jamie figure out how to be both Jamie and Jamilah before she loses everything? Praise for TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT ME: * "Written with insight, humor and sensitivity, Abdel-Fattah introduces a winning Muslim-Australian heroine who discovers that "honesty is liberating.' " -- KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review) * "[T]he teen's present-tense narrative is as hilarious as the narrator's in Abdel-Fattah's first book and is just as honest about the shocking prejudice against Muslims. Teens will love the free-flowing, funny dialogue, even as they recognize their own ways of covering up who they are." --BOOKLIST (starred review) "[T]he author brings a welcome sense of humor to Jamilah's insights about her culture, and she is equally adept at more delicate scenes . . . Jamilah is a character teens will readily relate to." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "[A] witty, sensitive debut . . ." -PEOPLE "A fascinating look at Islam" -ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Ten Things I Hate about Me

A remarkable story about the power of tolerance from one of the most important voices in contemporary Muslim literature, critically acclaimed author Randa Abdel-Fattah.

The Lines We Cross

I need to see Sitti Zeynab one last time. To know if I will have the courage to go ahead with my plan. The two nurses look frazzled and smile wearily at me. 'We must leave now,' they say in urgent tones. 'I won't be long,' I reassure them and I jump up onto the back of the ambulance. I can smell the air of her village, pure and scented. I can see her village as though it were Bethlehem itself. I can smell the almond trees. Hear my heels click on the courtyard tiles. See myself jumping two steps at a time down the limestone stairs. I can see Sitti Zeynab sitting in the front porch of the house. I only have to remember that walk through her memories and I know I can make my promise. I've already lost once. I refuse to lose again. 'Stay alive,' I whisper. 'And you shall touch that soil again.'Thirteen-year-old Hayaat is on a mission. She believes a handful of soil from her grandmother's ancestral home in Jerusalem will save her beloved Sitti Zeynab's life. The only problem is the impenetrable wall that divides the West Bank, as well as the check points, the curfews, the permit system and Hayaat's best-friend Samy, who is mainly interested in football and the latest elimination on X-Factor, but always manages to attract trouble. But luck is on their side. Hayaat and Samy have a curfew-free day to travel to Jerusalem. However, while their journey may only be a few kilometres long, it may take a lifetime to complete.

Where the Streets Had a Name

Sixteen-year-old Noah is a troublemaker. His father is a hotshot barrister.This is not a good combination.When Noah gets caught mucking up at school, his dad sends him to work at his aunt's law firm during the holidays to 'learn responsibility' and 'fix his attitude'.There he meets Jacinta – the cute intern who knows her way around a photocopier, and Casey – the wicked witch of the firm. Noah becomes involved in a case where a woman has been killed during a mugging gone wrong. There's a grieving husband, a guilty employer, and an open and shut case involving lots of money. But right and wrong, and crime and punishment are soon entangled as Noah realises that things are seldom what they seem.

Noah's Law

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a student visa must be in want of an Australian wife.Twenty-eight-year old Esma has a masters in human resource management, never orders just a salad, is well-travelled, has excellent taste in music, watches the ABC news, has the Guardian saved as an app on her iPhone, knows all the two-letter words in Scrabble and can tell the difference between a Ford and a Holden. Armed with a check-list, she's on the hunt for Mr Right, who must be a Muslim.Tired of failed matchmaking, online dating sites and people calling her 'old fashioned', Esma forms a 'No Sex in the City' club with her friends Lisa, Ruby and Nirvana.Esma's quest for The One was never going to be easy but when family, friends and meddling employers are thrown into the equation, her path to true love suddenly takes a great big detour.

No Sex in the City

Lara Zany is Potts Court Primary School's official Friendship Matchmaker. She is certain her Friendship Rules work. She can take the Loneliest Loser (LL) and help them make a best friend. Until Emily Wong shows up and breaks all the Rules. Now Emily has challenged Lara to a competition and Lara's Rules are about to be tested.

The Friendship Matchmaker

Although there are 22 separate Arab nationalities representing an enormous variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences, the portrayal of Arabs in Australia tends to range from homogenising (at best) to racist pop-culture caricatures. Edited by award-winning author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, and activist and poet Sara Saleh, and featuring contributors Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Ruby Hamad and Paula Abood, among many others, this collection explores the experience of living as a member of the Arab diaspora in Australia and includes stories of family, ethnicity, history, grief, isolation, belonging and identity.CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:Paula Abood | Nokomi Achkar | Michael Mohammed Ahmad | Rooan Al Kalmashi | Ryan Al-Natour | Rawah Arja | Hana Assafiri | Sarah Ayoub | Omar Bensaidi | Sara El Sayed | Asma Fahmi | Farid Farid | Ruby Hamad | Abdulrahman Hammoud | Lamisse Hamouda | Amani Haydar | Miran Hosny | Lora Inak | Elias Jahshan | Nicola Joseph and Huna Amweero | Zainab Kadhim and Mohammad Awad | Wafa Kazal | Yassir Morsi

Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity

'Randa Abdel-Fattah's compelling work reminds us that the way the global War on Terror has been prosecuted lands like blows across the backs of Muslim communities - it is in the everyday, the mundane, but also in the structures of state. The book should be praised for its depth and breadth of insights into Australia, as we see contemporary Islamophobia in the shade of the War on Terror revealed.' - Dr Asim Qureshi, Research Director, CAGE (UK) and author of A Virtue of Disobedience 'This book is a dissection of the production of Australia's Islamophobic culture in the wake of 9/11. It examines it as a disciplining technique deployed by government, operating in the schools and throughout society, and it examines it as it is lived by the youth subjected to it. Only someone like Randa Abdel-Fattah with her history as an academic, an activist and a novelist can produce a book like this: analytically sharp, anecdotally rich, politically relevant and beautifully written. Whoever you are, read it and it'll make a better Australian out of you.' - Ghassan Hage, Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory, School of Social and Political Science, University of Melbourne.

Coming of Age in the War on Terror

L'atmosfera è elettrica e la gente è molto carica da entrambe le parti. Poi scorgo lei. I suoi occhi. Non ne ho mai visti così. Di che colore sono? Nocciola e verdi con pennellate d'autunno e frammenti di smeraldo. E io me ne sto lì con in mano il mio cartello, mentre lei è qualche passo più in là, vicino a un poliziotto, e tiene stretto il suo. Il primo incontro con Mina è un fulmine a ciel sereno per Michael. Avviene per caso, durante una manifestazione organizzata dal nuovo partito politico fondato dal padre di lui che, con la scusa di difenderne i valori originari, si oppone all'accoglienza dei rifugiati arrivati via mare nel Paese. Il problema è che Mina sta dall'altra parte della barricata. Anni prima, infatti, ancora bambina, è scappata dall'Afghanistan insieme alla mamma e, dopo un viaggio lungo ed estenuante, è sbarcata in Australia, dove, come rifugiata, ha posto le basi per una nuova vita. Non è stato per niente facile, perché, come dice sua madre, "stare in un nuovo Paese è come camminare con una protesi. Ci vuole il doppio del tempo perché la mente e il corpo si adattino", però Mina sembra avercela fatta. Si è lasciata alle spalle la sofferenza e il dolore passati, è diventata una ragazza coraggiosa e fiera, e una studentessa talmente brillante da riuscire a vincere una borsa di studio per frequentare una scuola privata prestigiosa, la stessa di Michael. Ed è proprio qui che le loro vite si incontrano, o meglio si scontrano, nuovamente. Fin da subito infatti è chiaro a entrambi che appartengono a due mondi diversi, lontani da ogni punto di vista, eppure l'attrazione che li spinge l'uno verso l'altra è troppo grande, troppo potente per ignorarla. E quando la situazione intorno a loro si surriscalda, è altrettanto chiaro che non è più possibile accettare un mondo in cui tutto è bianco o nero. Sarebbe più facile, ma significherebbe rinunciare al sentimento che li unisce. E nessuno dei due è pronto a farlo. Forse, alla fine, ci sono casi in cui bisogna scendere in trincea e combattere contro tutto e tutti. Casi in cui vale la pena di rischiare per proteggere ciò che più amiamo.

La chimica degli opposti

This book explores Islamophobia in Australia, shifting attention from its victims to its perpetrators by examining the visceral, atavistic nature of people’s feelings and responses to the Muslim ‘other’ in everyday life. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, Islamophobia and Everyday Multiculturalism sheds light on the problematisations of Muslims amongst Anglo and non-Anglo Australians, investigating the impact of whiteness on minorities’ various reactions to Muslims. Advancing a micro-interactional, ethnographically oriented perspective, the author demonstrates the ways in which Australia’s histories and logics of racial exclusion, thinking and expression produce processes in which whiteness socializes, habituates and ‘teaches’ ‘racialising’ behaviour, and shows how national and global events, moral panics, and political discourse infiltrate everyday encounters between Muslims and non-Muslims, producing distinct structures of feeling and discursive, affective and social practices of Islamophobia. As such, it will be of interest to social scientists with interests in race and ethnicity, migration and diaspora and Islamophobia.

Islamophobia and Everyday Multiculturalism in Australia

Kirsti Øvergaard

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Kirsti Overgaard

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Don't panic - I'm Islamic! Amal is a 16-year-old Melbourne teen with all the usual obsessions about boys, chocolate and Cosmo magazine. She's also a Muslim, struggling to honour the Islamic faith in a society that doesn't understand it. The story of her decision to "shawl up" is funny, surprising and touching by turns.

Randa Abdel-Fattah

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