Brown Hijabi Belonging

These poems aim to take your through the journey's of South Asian women who have the unspoken burden of navigating their way with balancing expectations between two institutions -the traditional-Pakistani cultural expectations - versus the expectation to assimilate and integrate to meet Western ideals, and be accepted in Western society. It is not an easy route to take when attempting to balance expectations from both western society and South Asian cultural expectations, often these clashing one another. Each of these have their own standards, expectations, norms, beliefs and values - always facing the repercussions of choosing one over the other. Or often the neglect from either one of these can have a negative impact. This is unavoidable and often South Asian British women will face throughout their upbringing well into their adulthood. The poems aim to take you through a journey of different aspects of our lives and some of the emotions & thoughts that have arisen throughout. All the good, the bad and the ugly.