In my piece Home Sweet Home I wanted to look more deeply into what it means to be an American Muslim woman. I posted a message on the social media websites: Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram requesting Muslim women to donate scarves in the colours red, white or blue. I received scarves from various parts of the United States from women who had come to America at a young age or were born and raised in America as an American Muslim. Inspired by David Hammon’s African American Flag (1990) I decided to hand stitch these scarves together to create an American flag.
Through this act I was bringing together the stories of women, who came from all over the country with different backgrounds, into one singular piece.
Muslims are at a dilemma where they feel the need to hide their faith to show how American they are, not outwardly showing how religious they are so that they feel safe. We are taught that in order to be an American or to fit in, we have to be completely secular and that Islamic values don’t coincide with American values. We fear the term “religious extremist” being associated with us, which makes us feel the need to water down our beliefs and not present ourselves as visibly Muslim. Home Sweet Home is a testimony to coming from various backgrounds, but still sharing the common idea of being a Muslim and American. In creating this flag, I am reinforcing my views that being a Muslim does not make one any less an American. Faith, ethnicity, and country of residence reveal three separate and independent ways in which we are defined.
