Blurb
Book Review: Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
When Rekiya and Zaynunah met as teenagers, neither had any inkling this would be the start of a lifelong friendship. That the bond they formed so young would see them through the best and worst of times…
An unlikely alliance, Rekiya is the unacknowledged daughter of one of the country’s richest men while Zaynunah is the Ibadan born-and-raised hijabi with a more modest background.
Years later, a monumental loss tests the ties that bind them; in friendship, of family, of self, and healing.
Rekiya & Z explores the themes of Time and its fickleness, trauma, loss and the varying realities of Muslim Womanhood against the backdrop of Africa’s most populous country.
Book Details
Format: 292 pages, Paperback.
Published: September 28, 2020 by Xlibris US.
ISBN: 9781664131439.
Language: English.
My Review of Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
I love how books hold me by the hand and lead me into different worlds; worlds I wouldn’t even dream of entering. I don’t think I’ve read a book about Muslim women representation before, but this is a good start.
This book is about two friends who would be separated by distance and time. When Zaynunah leaves home for school in Noorah Muslim Girls Secondary School, she doesn’t know that a world entirely different from her family exists.
She would meet girls who do not cover their heads and skins as much as the girls in her family do, and those who are not as conservative as she is.
Thus, she would find it difficult to blend in with the other girls, till she meets Rekiya.
On the other hand, Rekiya comes from a rich home, with a mother that does not really care about her only daughter.
A mother that leaves her child to spend the mid-term holidays in school and alone.
Book Review: Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
However, everything would change from the time Rekiya starts spending the holidays in Z’s house, and discover how happy and uncomplicated her friend’s family is.
Z’s mother would be the first adult who would treat Rekiya like she really matters, and she would grow to love her even more than her own mother.
But then when it is time for University, Rekiya would leave for Texas, Houston to pursue her higher education, and this is where the ultimate change begins. She starts questioning her beliefs, if they matter.
She sees how vast the world is, and how little it cares for people who aren’t ready to ditch their principles and blend in.
And so she starts blending in, dropping her principles one after the other, till what is left is a woman that would not wear a scarf over her hair for ten years.
Book Review: Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
In America, she faces the most traumatic event of her life, which will take a whole lot of years and therapy, before she heals.
This book is told from two people’s perspectives, Rekiya and Z, and I love how the author moves seamlessly from present to past and back to the present again.
I love reading books in dual or multiple perspectives, because it makes you understand the characters better.
Rekiya leads a very complicated life, and the author takes her time in opening her up layer after layer. We learn about her mother, her complicated family, and so many secrets she keeps within herself.
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These secrets torment her from inside out, and she would seek help through therapy.
An important lesson to take away from this book is that abandonment has so many scarring effects on a child.
From an absent father, to a nonchalant mother, Rekiya would not enjoy what it feels to have people who you matter to, people who love you relentlessly and unconditionally.
Book Review: Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
She would never know what parental care and love taste like, and it will show in her life decisions.
Parents should do better. If you are not ready to take responsibility for your children, then it is better you don’t have them. It is an extremely wicked act for anyone to just churn kids into the world with no plans of taking care of them.
At the end of the day, these kids are scarred and traumatized, and they do not deserve living a loveless life.
After many years, with Rekiya being a phenomenal name in the finance world, she would be summoned by her best friend, Z on the occasion of her mother’s death.
Book Review: Rekiya & Z by Muti’ah Badruddeen.
This news would break Rekiya, because Z’s mother is the closest she has felt motherly love and affection.
And Rekiya will take a journey that would open up a phase of healing in her life. This book shows how extent friendship can go in enabling one hold onto their sanity.
How grief and loss can unlock the floodgates of repressed emotions, and make you embrace them and journey towards healing and liberation.
This is a beautiful book that shows the life of Muslim women, and how they navigate through life. It also shows why exposure is tantamount to living, and learning.
If you are enclosed in a space, you would think you are the norm, and that the world is homogenous.
But wriggling out of your comfort zone, you will understand that there is so much to life than you can see or know.
And that there is so much to see and learn from the complexities of other people’s lives.
This book explores themes like mental health, trauma, grief, loss, friendship and abandonment.
Also, you would never see the twist at the end, coming. The author got me with that one, I won’t lie. This is a book I would totally recommend. And I will rate it as 4.5/5.
Have you read the book? What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts in the comment section. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on all social media platforms. Thank you for visiting Bookish Pixie.
