6/11/2023 0 Comments Minaret aboulelaI was one of the ones who saw the signs early on in the tricksy ways of schoolchildren, in the way my mother, snow-white as she was, was disliked for being Russian. Born Natasha Hussein, she changes her name to Natasha Wilson to try to blend in to a place where neither of her parents felt at home.Įarly on, Natasha describes her eagerness and that of other Muslim youth in Britain to erase their Muslim identities: “Many of the young Muslims I taught throughout the years couldn’t wait to bury their dark, badly dressed immigrant parents who never understood what was happening around them or even took an interest. It’s Scotland in 2010, and Natasha, a half-Sudanese, half-Russian professor of history, is researching the life of religious leader Imam Shamil, who led the charge for Caucasian Muslims during their 19th century fight to gain liberation from the Russians.Īlthough accomplished and bright, Natasha, whose late mother was Russian and whose estranged father is Sudanese, clearly struggles deeply with a sense of disconnect and duality about her identity and place. She later settled with her family in Scotland, where her fourth novel, “The Kindness of Enemies,” begins. The daughter of an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father, Aboulela earned an economics degree from Khartoum University and a masters from the London School of Economics. Award-winning Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela was born in Cairo and raised in Khartoum, Sudan, a place that features prominently throughout her work, along with issues surrounding Muslim culture, religion and assimilation.
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