As pride month is officially upon us, one way to celebrate and uplift the LGBTQ+ community is to engage with queer media. A book that I recently read is Samra Habib’s personal memoir “We Have Always Been Here,” which I purchased from Wild Child, a small bookstore in Somerville dedicated to sharing the stories of women, POC, and the LGBTQ+ community. The book is a queer Muslim memoir that explores Samra’s experiences navigating queerness in a coming of age tale. Originally from Pakistan, Samra’s family moved to Toronto when she was a young girl, fleeing religious persecution. Samra describes the traumatic transition that comes with moving to a foreign country as a refugee, and the racism she faced on top of her family’s economic hardships. Amidst the trauma from becoming a child bride and intersections of poverty, sexism, and racism, Samra lacks the privilege of having time to question her sexuality, and it takes her years to accept her lesbian identity.
This memoir provides queer South Asian representation that is invisible to the mainstream media. Samra’s intersection of religious, racial, ethnic, and queer identities reflects the importance of intersectionality throughout social movements, while providing accurate representation to a hidden community of queer muslims and South Asians. It accurately reflects the immigrant experience living in North America, and the trauma refugees face by leaving their home nations. All queer people and allies should read this book to better understand the intersectionality of non-dominant group identities, and to uplift the voices of queer South Asian’s, a historically ostracized group.
To close, a quote from Samra that I’d like to highlight is “representation is a critical way for people to recognize that their experiences – even if invisible in the mainstream – are valid.” This memoir is extremely validating as a queer South Asian, and it is amazing to see myself represented. As stated in the title, queer Muslims and South Asian’s have always been here, and it is time to start amplifying their voices.
