ten-things-i-hate-about-me by Randa Abdel-Fattah

I felt that my Muslim faith and identity empowered me to seek to live to my fullest potential. I resisted patriarchal traditions in some aspects of my Arabic cultural heritage (never imposed by my very equal-opportunity parents) and found that my faith reinforced my instinct against injustice and double standards. RAF: I think I found myself, in terms of a sense of purpose and the coordinates for how to navigate and negotiate life, through a spiritual path. NH: You’ve said that you grew up with a strong Australian Muslim identity-can you elaborate? The older I get, the more I realize how hybridized my cultural identity is. As for my cultural consciousness, my mother is Egyptian and I grew up among her family in Australia and probably absorbed more Egyptian culture as a child. What was always present, however, was a sense that I was connected-personally and through a strong sense of principles-to an ongoing injustice and that raising awareness about it in Australia was an uphill battle. Sometimes I felt neither Australian nor Palestinian, tired of identity politics. RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH: I don’t think I ever identified as or even felt “Palestinian in Australia.” Sometimes I felt a hybrid of Australian and Palestinian. NATHALIE HANDAL: What was it like growing up Palestinian in Australia? This is an edited version of their talks. Nathalie Handal spoke with Randa Abdel-Fattah at the Sharjah International Book Fair in November 2014 their conversation continued over email in the course of January through April 2015. Abdel-Fattah is frequently sought for comment by the media on issues pertaining to Palestine, Islam and Australian Muslims. She worked as a litigation lawyer for ten years and is currently pursuing a PhD exploring everyday multiculturalism and racism in Australia, and remains passionate about my human rights activism.

She has written nine young adult books inspired by her research on racism, including Does My Head Look Big in This? Ten Things I Hate About Me, Where the Streets Had a Name, Buzz Off, The Friendship Matchmaker, The Friendship Matchmaker Goes Undercover, No Sex in the City, Jodie and the Book of You , and Rania and the Book of You. Randa Abdel-Fattah was born in Sydney in 1979 and grew up in Melbourne.

Ten-things-i-hate-about-me by Randa Abdel-Fattah