Q: Hello, Ms. Abdullah, and thank you for joining me. Would you mind briefly introducing yourself?
A: Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog. I am a Pakistani-American author based in Austin, Texas. My creative work focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of Pakistani women and their often unconventional choices in life.
My new novel Saffron Dreams explores the tragedy of 9/11 from the perspective of a Muslim widow. I received a grant from Hobson Foundation for that body of work. My 2005 debut book, Beyond the Cayenne Wall is a collection of stories about Pakistani women struggling to find their individualities despite the barriers imposed by society. The collection won the Norumbega Jury Prize for Outstanding Fiction and the DIY Festival Award, among other accolades.
Q: You are currently on virtual tour for Saffron Dreams; could you tell us about the book?
A: In Saffron Dream, the protagonist Arissa Illahi, a veil-wearing Muslim woman, loses her husband in the tragedy of 9/11. Pregnant and alone, she discovers the unfinished manuscript of her husband and decides to finish it as a tribute to him. Her unborn son and her husband’s legacy provide a renewed sense of hope to Arissa as she struggles to put the pieces of her life back together.
In the novel, I have attempted to capture how ordinary Muslims were affected by the tragedy of 2001—the silent majority who lead very normal lives and are law-abiding citizens of this land. They are the ones we never hear about because their lives are too ordinary to be the subject of the nightly news.
Q: Arissa sounds like a woman of great strength but also great turmoil. How much of Arissa stems from you and your personal experiences?
A: The novel is not autobiographical, although there are many similarities between the character and I. We are both writers and artists and had arranged marriages. The character’s challenges are many and greater. In the novel, the veil-wearing protagonist frequently encounters challenges about her faith and is forced to make some adjustments in her life to ward off the negative attention brought on by wearing symbols of her faith.
On a lighter note, both the character and I have flawed sense of directions but I will tell you this, certain characters of the novel were modeled after members of my family. A cousin who died after three years of marriage, leaving a pregnant wife behind drove the character of Arissa’s husband, Faizan. The cousin’s compassionate and loving parents inspired the characters of Faizan’s parents, who step in to help Arissa get back on her feet.
Q: Your book involves the World Towers collapse. Is your book at all controversial?
A: It depends on who is reading the book. In the opening scene, the protagonist discards her veil which had become almost a scarlet letter for her following the attacks of 2001. In the novel, it is shown as her own personal decision and not one that all veil-wearing women must follow. Arissa’s decision was triggered by her own unique circumstances and in her own words, transfers “her veil from her head to her heart.”
With Saffron Dreams, my intent is to also convey that most Muslims lead their lives guided by the general principle of peace and harmony. The book also talks about how terrorists do not represent mainstream Islam. Having Faizan, an innocent Muslim man, die in the attack shows that terror has no religion or race.
Q: What would you like your readers to take away from reading Saffron Dreams?
A: Saffron Dreams is based on the basic premise that the preservation of cultural and religious identity of any group is the cornerstone of a civil society. In the terrorist attack of 9/11, the shards of glass reached far and wide wounding the hearts of Americans who had been very accepting of the melting pot their country had become. The event put them at odds with a community that had come to this country with very simple objectives: to work hard and lead honest lives.
Where the media instilled fear in the heart of the nation about Muslims, lately they have also attempted to learn the true purpose of Islam by bringing in renowned and respected scholars and researchers to interview. There still needs to be more dialogs with positive role models of Islam like His Highness the Aga Khan who stresses on the importance of pluralism in a civil society and speaks about the clash of ignorance.
Others like Karen Armstrong and Dr. Ali Asani who time and again have taken center stage to correct some of the misconceptions that exist around Islam. Much work still lies ahead but as with any wound on the psyche of a country, it will take awhile to heal. There is a great need in the U.S. for various religious entities to come together and build bridges of understanding and tolerance to find a common ground—work that Dr. Eboo Patel is doing through the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core.
