Photos by Luke Hoffman
Then seventh-grader Aisha Sharif was in gym class like any other day, sitting with her friends on the mats.
Her scarf was on her head, just like it was when she jumped hurdles in sweatpants. Or prayed in the principal’s office. Or when she read the Qur’an during her study hall.
Her scarf was always on her head.
That was until a fellow student pulled it off and ran.
Because of Sharif’s identity, an occurrence that may seem like a harmless middle school prank was actually a prominent instance in Sharif’s childhood. She cried in the locker room shower until class was over. To her, the scarf symbolized two key parts of her identity — that she was a female Muslim. Without it, she felt naked.
Now Sharif is a poet, mother and wife to East social studies teacher David Muhammad. She uses that childhood memory as inspiration for one of her many poems about intersectionality, which is the interconnected nature of different social categorizations, like race, gender and religion.
According to Sharif, this occurrence, where the different segments of Sharif’s identity came together was an example of intersectionality. The student was a boy, and Sharif a girl. The scarf that the boy removed was a hijab, which is a religious garment worn by Muslims. The boy was white and Sharif was black.
Intersectionality of identity is an idea she finds especially intriguing and explores in her new book that was published in January 2019, “To Keep From Undressing.”
Sharif has always found the way people view themselves to be an interesting concept because of its complexity and the way many people categorize themselves into multiple identities.
“You have to think of [people through] this prism, of how multiple things affect them,” Sharif said. “So I always argue that as a Muslim, who’s a woman, who’s black, who’s originally from the South, all of those identities affect who I am.”
“To Keep From Undressing” contains mainly autobiographical poems about living as a woman of the Islamic faith in the 21st century, with the theme of intersectionality woven in.
The publishing process was roughly an eight-year journey that began in 2010 when Sharif decided that she wanted to compile the poems she had written throughout her life into a book. Though the poems were written at various times throughout Sharif’s poetry career — one that started with “There’s a Rat in My Backpack” at age 14 — they all fall under the central theme of Islam. Within this theme, the poems range from discussions about coverings, like the hijab, to ones about how her life would be different if her parents had not converted to Islam.
Although at the beginning of her career Sharif mainly wrote light-hearted poems, the majority of works in this book focus on the interconnected nature of her identity.
Like how as an African American, Sharif’s accent is different than the Arabic Muslims. And how some of them say you can only know God in Arabic. This is where the African American part of her identity and the Muslim sector overlap.
Or about those instances in the dressing room at clothing stores, the salesperson asking why she covers herself so much compared to other women. This is where the modern woman and the Muslim meet.
All of these ways the different parts of Sharif’s identity meet affect the way she views herself — internally and externally.
Sharif realizes her identity lies within many minority sectors. But she also knows there’s a part of the population that shares the same identities as her, and that their voices are important.
“My experience isn’t singular,” Sharif said. “Other people are experiencing these things too. So maybe if I put it out there, then we can actually talk about it, and they can receive some validation.”
Starting around 2010, Sharif focused her writing career on constantly revising and submitting her manuscript to different publishers. But her work was always met with rejection.
Revise, submit. Restructure, submit. This cycle continued until 2017 when Spark Wheel Press, a literary press based in Omaha, Neb. decided to work with Sharif on publishing her book.
According to Liz Kay, the founding editor of Sparkwheel Press, the publication company was immediately drawn to Sharif’s writing for its beauty and the intimacy it invites.
“What drew us to Aisha’s manuscript was the absolute mastery of craft,” Kay said. “These poems are beautifully made.”
Likewise, according to Torrey Smith, another editor for Sparkwheel Press, the way Sharif intimately articulates her experiences made the book applicable to all people.
“It’s so timely in the exploration of modern-day experiences but is timeless in how universally human it is to question and explore what shapes our identity,” Smith said.
Sharif wants people to relate to and find validation for their own experiences in her works, while also helping people engage with and understand Muslims.
After years of rejections from publishers and almost turning to self-publishing, Sharif’s husband, David Muhammad, said he is looking forward to his wife receiving some much-deserved recognition.
“I’m enjoying sitting back and being able to just watch her have her own moment. And I’m trying to find ways we can create more moments for her because I’ve always known she’s really talented,” Muhammad said. “I think it’s really only just the beginning.”
You can purchase Sharif’s book by clicking on any of the below links: