Between the Head and Heart

In February this year,Love in a Headscarf (Aurum Press) was published in the UK and received warm reviews. Although her book hasn’t been published in India ,Janmohammed is looking forward to the day it will.

I cast a glance at her husband,he’s The One she found after years of searching for a husband through the arranged marriage network. He’s charming,shakes my hand and has a warm smile. I’m glad to have met the happy ending of Janmohammed’s delightful memoir,a journey that began when she was 13 years old.

When Janmohamed entered her teens,she dreamt that John Travolta would fall madly in love with her,marry her,convert to Islam and live happily ever after as a devout Muslim. By the time she was 19,she realised that such a dream would not come true,and she’d rather look for love in the real world. And so her search for The One began. But for an Oxford-educated,independent Muslim woman of faith,it was an exercise in patience,hope and introspection. And choice as well,as she discovered that there were quite a few young Muslim men who did not want her to wear her headscarf. “I chose to wear it all the time when I was 18,right before Oxford . It was difficult to find the right combination of an educated man who was following the faith as well. I was too educated,too religious,and in one case,two days older than a suitor who retracted his offer. The Prophet Mohammad’s first wife was significantly older than him I remembered but people don’t always follow the path of those they revere,” says Janmohammed,who gradually felt that meeting all the prospective husbands helped her make sense of herself as well as her values.

She was already blogging about her search but decided to write the book about two years ago. “I was at a bookstore and there was a long table in front of me full of books about Muslim women and how oppressed they were. I wondered,where was my story,and why wasn’t anybody telling it?” says Janmohammed,who then resolved to tell it herself.

She says the 267-page book has got great responses from Muslim women all over the world and “it would be wonderful to know what the women in India think of it.” There’s a film option too in the UK and she feels it will be made as a coming-of-age story rather than a rom-com. What about Travolta? “Oh he joined the Church of Scientology ,I don’t think that would work for me,” smiles Janmohammed.

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