The book is educational, hilarious and often poignant in the depiction of a Muslim girl struggling to find her place in the world.

Randa has since written '10 Things I Hate About Me', this time about a Muslim teen who suppresses her identity. I caught up with the young writer and lawyer between talks at the Perth Writer’s Festival to ask how her writing career developed and why she was so passionate about highlighting the problems that Muslims face in today’s society.                                      

INTERVIEWED BY Kate Gardner

Did you always want to write?

Yes, I’ve always been an avid reader and yearned for the opportunity to become a published writer. I remember my parents buying me an electric typewriter for my birthday when I was young, and they typed up a little note saying ‘To the future author’.

Who were your role models growing up?

My parents were very strong role models in my upbringing and hugely supportive of education because they come from a highly educated background as well. Reading, thinking and ideas were always a huge part of growing up. The migrant people I knew helped me find my identity as an Australian more than people of Anglo backgrounds. They said to me, ‘You are as much Australian as anyone else. This is your country.’ That informed my own identity and gave me a sense of empowerment.

What motivated you to write your books?

Well I’ve always been profoundly interested in issues of identity because I came from a Muslim Palestinian-Egyptian background so I’ve had to reconcile the different aspects of who I am. I’m passionate about the impact that stereotyping and media sensationalism has on young people.

I wrote the books from a young person’s perspective but my audience was not limited to young people because I felt there was a gross misconception about Muslims, about Islam. Every reader would have that opportunity to be exposed to an alternative narrative; the Muslim experience. So my primary objectives were to allow readers to step into the shoes of a Muslim girl and see her as more than a headline and a stereotype.

Is that something you experienced?

I didn’t, but I saw friends who were so crushed by the weight of stereotypes they felt the only way they could fit in was to change their identity and suppress it. Very often they were left more troubled because they were living in two worlds and felt they didn’t belong in either.

Have you had much feedback about the books, either from Muslims or non-Muslims?

I’ve received a lot of feedback from people who aren’t Muslim. They told me that getting past the stereotypes gave them an awakening. A lot of Muslim girls have told me it validated their experiences; it felt like a diary to them. I found it particularly heartening when some Muslim boys said they’d never realised how much courage it took for girls to wear the scarf. The feedback certainly made me realise how far I’d come in terms of understanding my own place in Australia, and how fortunate I have been to really consolidate the sense of who I am

Do you think that it is getting easier or harder for young Muslims to find their place in Australian society?

It’s probably harder because of the hysteria post 9/11. I grew up during the first Gulf war, and there were certainly not as many opportunities for open dialogue and interface and discussions as there are now. I think the challenges are there and probably even worse but the opportunities to readdress some of them are better. During the Howard years I was quite pessimistic but I hope the fact there has been a change in government will at least get multiculturalism back on the agenda.

Are you planning to write any more books?

The third book comes out in October and it’s very different to the first two. It’s about a girl and her journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It’s an illegal journey because Palestinians aren’t allowed to travel freely. She goes to get some soil from her grandmother’s home, put in it a jar and bring it back to her grandmother who is sick. It tells of the massive upheaval and devastating impact this has in her life. I always knew I wanted to write a book about Palestine so it’s been a real challenge and an amazing journey for me.

What sort of research did you do for that?

I used a lot of my own experiences but it was far more a work of fiction than my first two books. A lot of the instances of encounters between soldiers and Palestinians were based on documented cases. I spoke to so many people that lived there, escaped from there or had been kicked out.

In the long term, do you think you will continue to write on this theme?

I’m at the crossroads now where I have to make a decision. One of the problems that I have encountered is that people typecast you as a Muslim writer. Unfortunately, to become more mainstream you have to write using Anglo characters because as soon as you don’t it becomes a niche market, a token multiculturalism.  To say that this is a specialist book totally overlooks the message. These are Australian girls and their experiences are just as Aussie as others.

Randa’s third book, Where the Streets had a Name (working title) is out in October.

Photo courtesy of Pan Macmillan