Her three-day visit was not enough. Celebrated author Shelina Janmohamed, who wrote the book Love in a Headscarf, a humorous memoir about growing up as a British Muslim woman, said she was impressed with the participants of the workshops and talks she conducted here. “They had been very lively.”
Janmohamed conducted two sessions of a memoir writing workshop, which was attended by students from Qatar University, Qatar Foundation’s branch campuses, and writers from the community. “I had been invited by Bloomsbury Qatar here perhaps because they thought my work may have resonance ... or may be of interest to Qataris because I talk about issues of identity and finding one’s place in the modern world,” Janmohamed said before the session, “Personal Narratives: Telling Your Story,” started yesterday at the Bloomsbury Qatar office at Qatar Foundation.
Janmohamed, who writes regularly for The Guardian, The National, The Times and EMEL magazine, a leading Muslim lifestyle magazine, not only visited classes at the Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar and Carnegie Mellon University-Qatar, she also participated in small group sessions with readers to hear their thoughts about her work.
During her visit, Janmohamed also gave a talk “A Woman’s Journey” for the British Council Women’s Organisation, Springboard, for women in Qatar who want to fulfill their potential in both work and personal life. “I was asked issues about competing identities... the participants of my workshops have been very lively, mainly because I talked honestly about my experiences and I think people respond to that honesty,” she said.
Based in London, UK, Janmohamed was named by The Times newspaper and the UK Equalities Commission as one of the UK’s most influential Muslim women
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