Child of The Fall: Neither Black Nor White

“I moved with my family from Tulsa, Oklahoma to England, followed by the United Arab Emirates, when I was six years old. My mother made the decision shortly after 9/11 to escape the violence that Muslims and BIPOC are still facing today. By thirteen, I would live between both the UAE and India for nine years, where I became a multilingual outsider. My skin tone and fluency gave me access to communities willing to accept me for my external features, but not the hidden identities I carried.”

– Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman