Blog | Shahnaz Ahsan

Ammu’s Kitchen: Eid in Isolation

It is a dance that we have both performed countless times; we know the steps by heart. Her kitchen was my first kitchen - my training...

Finding Purpose in Pilgrimage

It is common for those welcoming home returning pilgrims to comment on their ‘noor’ – the radiance that supposedly emanates from the face...

Towers Amidst the Mountains

The story of Islam begins in the mountains. It was in the mountain cave, Hira, so the story goes, that a merchant by the name of Muhammad...

Fighting for Space in God’s House

I was soon reminded that while I was in God’s House, so too were the misogynists.

Seeking Holiness: Place and Ritual

We arrived in Makkah in the early hours of the morning. My father had already changed into his ihram clothing on the plane.

Preparing for Pilgrimage

I remember when my grandmother returned from performing Hajj. It was 1995 and I was eight years old.

Homecoming

One of the first questions a Bangladeshi will ask of another, on meeting for the first time is 'Bari kothai?'

Father Tongue

It’s with a kind of guilty sadness, now, that I recall how my father would look at me, almost pleadingly, during our Bangla lessons at home.

Foreigner

It is not supposed to rain in December, at least not there. The storms that greeted us were freaks, anomalous - heralded with both awe and..

Father's Day

My father is most likely to be found sitting in his study. ‘Study’ is rather a grand title for the room, the smallest in the house.

Empty Nest

Since my younger sister left the family home for university last month, I have watched my parents rediscovering the house that they have liv