The most tiring thing about being a Muslim woman is that before we can even go out into the world to establish our own identities, we have to deconstruct and unpick the identities that have been created for us by those who don’t necessarily care for us.

The way Muslim women are portrayed in the mainstream media, popular culture and politics means that, for the majority, the image of what a Muslim woman is and can be is a very restricted one.

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said in her Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story: “the single story creates stereotypes, the problem with the stereotypes is not that they are untrue but they make one story become the only story.”

I have long since tired of the single narrative and story about Muslim women. Conversations around Muslim women have happened in isolated spaces where Muslim female identity has been homogenised, and these same women are never asked to contribute.

“What I want people to know about being a Muslim woman”