Laila Lalami

I have a brief opinion piece in the Guardian about the hoopla surrounding Keith Ellison’s swearing-in ceremony today. A snippet:

Ultimately, however, Keith Ellison was not elected in order to represent Muslims, but in order to represent Minnesotans, regardless of their faith. So I hope that, once the curiosity has waned, the media will remember this important fact. I hope they will let him attend to his work, just like any other Congressperson. I hope they won’t go to him every time they need a sound bite on American Muslims, or, worse, on Islamic fundamentalism. I hope they just leave him alone.

You can read it all here.

Ahdaf Soueif’s new book, a collection of short stories titled I Think Of You, comes out in March in the United States. I was slightly disappointed when I found out that the pieces in this book have all been previously published, either in Soueif’s first collection Aicha (1983), or in her second, Sandpiper (1996). Those books were not published in the United States, though, and in any case they are somewhat hard to find through online booksellers, so this new collection, which culls the best stories from both, makes perfect sense. I recommend, in particular, the stories “1964,” “I Think Of You,” and “Sandpiper.”

For those who are curious (and who speak Dutch): There is an interview with me by Jan Stevens in the Belgian magazine Vacature.

(Photo credit: Stijn Pieters)

I was at a jeweler’s on the rue des Consuls in Rabat when I heard the news that Saddam had been hanged. I looked up from the silver necklace I was admiring to see the hazy, greenish video of the bearded dictator being led to the gallows. “They hung him?” I said. I had heard of the sentence pronounced by the U.S.-controlled Iraqi court, but I had thought it would take a few weeks, if not months, before it was carried out. The jeweler, an old man in a gray jellaba and white skullcap, shook his head. “It’s only going to make it worse for the Iraqis,” he said. “And they did it on Eid, too!” he said. “Why couldn’t they have waited a few days?” The implication was clear: The hanging of Saddam on the eve of Eid was a deliberate act of humiliation. And we all know how well that works. Already Sunnis are marching in Samarra, Tikrit, and elsewhere. There will be more violence, more bloodshed. If an old man sitting in his shop in the medina has more sense than the “leader of the free world,” then there is no hope for Iraq.

Since my parents are out of town at the moment, we spent the Eid el-Adha (or Eid el-Kebir) holiday with my uncle in Rabat. It was a lovely weekend getaway, and I was surprised to rediscover so many details I had forgotten: The way that sheep bleat incessantly the day before, and then are absolutely quiet when the hour comes; how I always consider becoming vegetarian that day; how the smell of mint tea combined with that of melted crepine on boulfaf makes me succumb every time. After the meal, we looked through boxes and boxes of family photos, made and received phone calls, and sat out on the terrace. But I stayed out too long, and then woke up the next day with a horrible cold and migraine. My best wishes to all of you for a happy and very healthy new year.