Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. Summary

Hijab Butch Blues is a memoir by Lamya H that explores their journey as a queer, hijabi Muslim immigrant reconciling faith with queerness. Through Quranic stories and personal experiences, Lamya challenges gender norms, reimagines divine non-binary identity, and navigates belonging across cultures. The book blends radical hope with raw honesty about intersectional identity, family, and self-acceptance.

This memoir is essential for LGBTQ+ Muslims seeking representation, allies interested in intersectional narratives, and readers exploring faith, gender, and immigration. It resonates with those grappling with identity constraints, offering a blueprint for embracing multiplicity without sacrificing community or spirituality.

Yes—the book won the Stonewall Non-fiction Book Award and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize for its lyrical prose and bold reframing of queerness in Islamic contexts. Critics praise its unflinching vulnerability and unique lens on reconciling devotion with self-authenticity.

Lamya reinterprets Quranic narratives to mirror their struggles: Maryam’s virgin birth parallels queer self-discovery, Musa’s liberation mirrors escaping oppression, and Allah’s genderless nature validates non-binary identity. These metaphors bridge ancient text and modern queer resistance, offering theological grounding for marginalized experiences.

“Hijab” signifies faith and cultural identity, while “butch” embodies gender nonconformity. “Blues” evokes both struggle and musical resilience, echoing Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues. The title encapsulates Lamya’s journey of harmonizing seemingly conflicting identities into a cohesive self.

Lamya rejects binary constraints, describing wearing masculinity as survival while politically aligning with womanhood. They re-envision Allah as non-binary (“Allah is They”) and critique patriarchal interpretations of scripture, asserting that queerness and devotion coexist.

Lamya highlights LGBTQ+ Muslim solidarity in New York and global online spaces, contrasting it with isolation in conservative Gulf communities. The memoir argues that true belonging emerges when faith communities embrace complexity over dogma.

While universally praised for its prose, some readers unfamiliar with Islamic theology may find Quranic analogies challenging. However, Lamya’s approach is celebrated for subverting Islamophobic and queerphobic stereotypes, offering a nuanced counter-narrative.

Notable lines include:

• “The only way I can get through the day is by wearing masculinity on my body”
• “Allah is They”
• “Queerness is fundamentally a multiplicity of selves”

These encapsulate Lamya’s themes of identity fragmentation and integration.

Unlike memoirs focusing on leaving religion, Lamya’s work centers staying devout while queering tradition. It shares thematic parallels with Stone Butch Blues but uniquely intersects Islamic theology with queer liberation.

As global debates on LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom intensify, Lamya’s memoir provides a critical roadmap for bridging divides. It challenges polarizing narratives, showing how marginalized voices can reshape theological and cultural discourse.

Lamya organizes LGBTQ+ Muslim support networks and writes on Islamophobia, prison abolition, and Palestinian rights. Follow them on Twitter/IG @lamyaisangry or explore their essays in Los Angeles Review of Books and Vice.