![]() ![]() ![]() Habib demonstrates an awareness of this, sharing that “some of Muslim activist friends also expressed concerns about writing a memoir. I sometimes feel ambivalent about the expectations placed on memoirs with a focus on a minority identity, because the writer is expected to represent their community while also narrating their own story truthfully. ![]() We Have Always Been Here is photographer, writer and activist Samra Habib’s memoir recounting her family’s immigration from their native Pakistan to Canada as refugees fleeing religious persecution for being Ahmaddiya Muslims, and her own journey entering and leaving an arranged marriage at age 18 to her male cousin, and coming into her queer identity. Not everyone is equipped for activism in the traditional sense-marching, writing letters to officials-but dedicating your life to understanding yourself can be its own form of protest, especially when the world tells you that you don’t exist. It’s who you are, whether that means rejecting traditional gender roles or embracing non-normative identities and politics. Being queer, I learned, is so much more than who you sleep with. ![]()
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