“We’re moving beyond identity toward faith in the promise of humanity. That’s the Future — a future beyond splintered identities dwarfing the vastness of Human Belonging.”
— SHIREEN QUDOSI
I’m devoted to mapping figurative landscapes and inviting others to go into unknown places — not as a tourist, but through the intimacy of wonder.
I’m a daughter of refugees across three continents, a mother to a son with Autism, and an explorer in the wilderness of the heart. I believe that the mystery of being is often nested within the composite of our entire life experience. We can find the sacred in the mundane nestled like a jewel in the rock — we just have to dig a little first.
HELLO,
The world we live in is growing more complex with newer challenges. These times are an invitation for us to step into our gifts. To do that, we need to remember the song of our hearts and the stories that are our own. My gift is in alchemizing chaos and confusion into song. I inspire others to believe it is possible to go within and below the surface layer of their identity to find the mystery, a wonderful complex constellation that is beautiful and uniquely their own.
WHere You Can Find Me
What People Are Saying
“Powerful words that bring internal peace for many”
— John Murphy, Artistic Director at The Cabiri
“Everything you write sends a wave of positivity through time and space.”
— JIM DI Peso, policy director for Republicans for Environmental Protection
“For every resonant word, thank you.”
— Michael Steward, Reader
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So many of us especially women, have been dispossessed because we’ve not complied with a program in religion, a program that is completely devoid of faith since faith cannot be summoned or demanded. We’re called demons and monsters, shamed and threatened, over and over again. There are only so many times you can be called the devil or shamed until it doesn’t mean anything anymore. The spell starts to lose its power and the words are shown for what they are — just words. And slowly the story loses its craft and we begin to see the stories for what they are: propaganda.
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Wedged between the East and the West, lost in a nowhere land of my own, I stood witness to the illusion of choice that pervades cultures: Freedom was a story we told ourselves…I always used to think the boys had it easier. They weren’t treated this way, in the gentle slow snuffing of breath until the wilderness of our heart is lost to us. Boys were treated with favor. But now I think they have it worse. It is easier to wake up from a nightmare than it is to wake up from a dream.
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…I saw this same pattern of grooming girls to be cut off from themselves in practices like female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a literal clitoral cutting. Their wild and budding feminine nature couldn’t be tamed or pruned; they were severed through a literal cutting. In these cultures, girls are cut off before they are ever forced to part their legs; the tongue behind their lips is snipped long before an older voice rooted between their legs is torn off.
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The first time I saw a representation of myself as a woman, it wasn’t some brand sticking a big girl in a leotard and making her look like she could cut you in a street fight. It was the Venus of Willendorf, the figure of a Paleolithic goddess 28,000 to 25,000 years ago…
What People Are Saying
“Memoir as an art form captures universal emotions. It allows someone who had a completely different upbringing to empathize with the life of the author. It reveals to us how variegated humanity is, even as it recognizes the universality of certain reactions and feelings. Shireen Qudosi tries to bridge the gap between the new world and the very old world.”
— Gerard Perry, American Rattlesnake
MEmoir Excerpt
Becoming an Alchemist.
When I first ventured into telling my own story, I started with short essay that mapped the first half of my life to the point where I decided to step into the rabbit hole of faith. To this day, it is the most widely read piece of writing I’ve written.
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A story is the most important instrument of change
Featured IN
‘NEVER AGAIN IS NOW’ focuses on Evelyn Markus and her journey to spread awareness about and investigate anti-semitism in the US and Europe. Evelyn Markus, who emigrated from the Netherlands, moved to the United States in the early 2000s after an alarming rise in anti-semitism in her home country. Unfortunately, the peace she found in the US was short-lived. Markus interviews Shireen Qudosi, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and others. [Learn more]
