Featured Illustration: Shehzil Malik

They ask me

Are you fasting?

Then look on with suspicion

When I say no

Waiting for some explanation

As to why I’m not quite

This caricature of a Muslim woman

They’ve put together in their heads

From scraps on the news, TV shows, movies,

And their general opinion

Of what a good Muslim looks like.

These people who are not Muslim themselves

But peer at me eagle-eyed and excited

For me to justify my view of Islam

Like the only kind of Muslim you can be

Is this cut out of a human being

They wave before my eyes.

Asking why I don’t fast,

Painting all Muslim women

As tan-skinned, soft-spoken Muslimahs

Waiting for some white saviour to lead them into freedom.

So when they look at me strangely

Waiting for some sort of justification,

I bite my tongue and remember

There is no one way to be Muslim.