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{"id":2041,"date":"2020-04-19T09:45:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T09:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2020-04-19T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T10:17:15","slug":"lone-star-listens-huda-fahmy-and-story-thats-been-writing-itself-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2041&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Listens: Huda Fahmy and the Story That’s Been Writing Itself for Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with Houston’s Huda Fahmy, author of two comics collections<\/p>\n

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Lone Star Literary Life: Ms. Fahmy, your latest book, That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story<\/a> <\/em>(Andrews McMeel, March 2020), is the story of an observant Muslim woman finding a husband in the twenty-first century\u2014specifically, it\u2019s the story of how you met your husband. Please tell us about your new book and your inspiration for writing it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Huda Fahmy<\/span><\/span><\/strong>: I feel like this story has been writing itself for years. Since I was a kid, I\u2019d been a huge fan of rom coms and love novels\u2014the star-crossed lovers, the romancing, the dates, the grand gestures. I knew my own love story was going to be a bit different; it was going to be arranged. I found it frustrating that society saw my love story as backwards and archaic. I couldn\u2019t understand why people had a problem with two adults consenting to being set up when things like blind dates and Tinder existed. So, I was inspired to try and change that perception by writing my book. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The marketing copy for That Can Be Arranged <\/em>says, \u201cChaperones, suitors, and arranged marriages aren’t only reserved for the heroines of a Jane Austen novel.\u201d What are the commonalities and the differences between an Austen novel and the experiences of contemporary Muslim women? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019d like to take a moment to note that Muslim women are complex and nuanced. I avoid making generalizations about the experiences of Muslim women as a whole because the way I went about finding a partner, while common in many Muslim communities, is not the only way Muslim women get married and find love. Having said that, I\u2019ve always compared the way my community approached arranged marriages to an Austen novel. I found it hilarious that the mothers in Austen\u2019s novels were obsessed with finding their daughters a husband. They would do their research and relay the information to the family. (Did you know that Mr. Darcy makes 10,000<\/em> pounds a year!) Similarly, the aunties in my community (my mother included) were fountains of information when it came to sharing data on a potential suitor. In Austen\u2019s novels, the men and women had the chance to scope each other out at balls, whereas in my community the scoping out was done mainly by the matriarch of the family at weddings or social gatherings. But in both cases, the couple ultimately would meet to sit and talk about this and that (while being heavily chaperoned) until the time came when both would accept (or reject) the engagement. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Your first book is Yes, I\u2019m Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth About Life in a Hijab<\/a> <\/em>(Adams Media, 2018). Please tell us how you came to write your first book and about your first big break in publishing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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