These Impossible Things: Three Muslim girlfriends come to terms with life, love, friendship and womanhood

“The main love story in this book is between three women. The love story of their friendship.” Salma El-Wardany wants to make this clear about her debut novel, These Impossible Things.

For almost 400 pages the reader is invited into the lives of three young Muslim women, Jenna, Bilquis (Kees) and Malak, as they navigate life after university and the many pitfalls that come with it. 

Our three protagonists reflect the diversity of the Muslim community across the world, coming from Egyptian, Pakistani and Palestinian backgrounds.

"For Salma El-Wardany, this novel was born out of rage to not only see better Muslim representation on the page but to have fully fleshed out characters whose defining characteristic wasn't their faith"

This makes sense as the author Salma is all too used to straddling cultures and identities.

Self-described as “half Egyptian, half Irish and a bit Desi,” she was born in Egypt before moving to England. After doing her Masters thesis on the representation of Muslims in literature across the Western hemisphere, this novel was a long time coming. 

“My findings were depressing, horrendously depressing,” the author revealed. “Unfailingly across all of its literature Muslims fit into one of three categories. A terrorist, obviously, orientalist (think Aladdin) or the Western saviour complex.”

For Salma, this novel was born out of rage to not only see better Muslim representation on the page but to have fully fleshed out characters whose defining characteristic wasn't their faith. 

“There wasn’t anything for me and my friends who went out, got drunk, had sex and went to the mosque and loved that part of their faith and never wanted to forsake it and was very enriched by their culture. If there’s not a story out there that you want to read, then write it. I thought well I’ll start here.”

Enter Jenna, Bilquis and Malak, three women on the cusp of the rest of their lives and facing their own struggles.

For Jenna, she’s stuck in dead-end relationships and flings and after becoming isolated from her friends, finds herself trying to fill that hole of connection.

For Bilquis, she faces the crisis of trying to reconcile her relationship with a white man and meeting her family's expectations. Finally, for Malak, after ending her own long-term relationship we see her go back to her homeland roots and figure out what’s next in her life. 

Talking about the inspiration behind the characters, Salma says, “They are a little bit a tribute to my girlfriends. They are all a little bit of me. And then they are a lot of fiction. So it is a real mix.” 

Of course, as with any book that incorporates the Muslim faith and its versatile culture, Salma also had to navigate how she wrote that representation into the book.  “There’s a really delicate balance and I have found a really great responsibility. You don’t want to write for the white gaze. 

“You don’t want to over-explain, you don’t want to explain what this word means or why we say it to each other because, well, Tolstoy wrote War and Peace and there’s a lot of Russian in that which is never explained but all of the Western literature very easily gets on board with it.” 

She continues, “The really hard bit to navigate is that I personally always feel a bit of anger at the Muslim community and the way it operates. I resent how they handle young people in relationships outside of the faith. I resent the pressure they put on Muslim women to be with Muslim men. 

“And I am really angry that they have not untangled a lot of the patriarchy that has infiltrated the culture and faith. I have a lot of my own anger and I don’t want to write something that slates the Muslim community and for white people to all go ‘you see.’”

"I hope Muslim women read it and begin to see themselves in the fabric of our culture. I never saw myself on a page. How different would my life have been, had I? If I had seen myself on the screen or page, not just playing terrorist number 2"

Although it is set in England, a large portion of the book transports the reader to Cairo where Malak has gone to reconnect with her family and roots. Malak’s experience is partially rooted in Salma El-Wardany’s own experience of living in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution. 

“I lived there during the revolution,” she remembers. “I went to a horse ranch in between Alexandra and Cairo in the desert and was a full-on farmer for five months. I then moved to the city on 24 January 2011 and the next day was the beginning of the Egyptian revolution. I did a lot of protesting, blogging, and political coverage while I stayed there. Malak’s walks around the city and the things she loves are from what I observed. It’s an incredible place. It's mental, constant madness, but it’s gorgeous.”

As well as our female characters whose friendships and journeys of discovery are the true focus of the novel, we also have a handful of male characters, the most beloved of which is Bilquis’ father.

His character reflects a lot of the struggle many immigrant fathers are familiar with. Throughout the novel, we see his conflict in supporting his daughter and how he goes about showing his love and acceptance through gestures.

“My dad is a Pakistani immigrant and he will shout at me for not being careful when crossing the road and that’s his way of showing love. 'I love you lots' is not the way they communicate. No one is avidly throwing out protestations of love but there is so much love and tenderness and I wanted to portray how that love is communicated and given,” Salma explains.

Exploring Bilquis’ relationship with her white boyfriend, Harry, was also really important to her. “I think it’s a really common lived experience of Muslim women and I think when I was a kid you didn’t see anyone go off with a white man. All the damnation only serves to push people outside of the faith. I  wanted to show parents coming round at the end to show it could have been done.” 

Reflecting on what she hopes Muslim women get out of the book she says, “I hope it shows the beauty of different cultures and the complexities and nuance of all of that and how straddling different worlds enriches you and gives you a more beautiful experience in life. 

"I hope Muslim women read it and begin to see themselves in the fabric of our culture. I never saw myself on a page. How different would my life have been, had I? If I had seen myself on the screen or page, not just playing terrorist number 2.

"I hope it writes the experience into popular culture where it can live forever. The experience of Muslim women that is not solely to do with them being Muslim. I guess it’s a bit of a love letter to all the Muslim women in my life.”

Asyia Iftikhar is a freelance journalist who covers socio-political issues, mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, identity – and their intersection with digital culture and entertainment.

Follow her on Twitter: @asyiaiftikhar