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A review by reads2cope
Life as a Unicorn: A Journey from Shame to Pride and Everything in Between by Amrou Al-Kadhi
4.0
I started this for the TransRightsReadathon but couldn’t get another loan from my library until Pride Month - auspicious timing!
This was an often difficult but very clarifying and brutally honest memoir. It was so hard to read not only about the bullying and discrimination Al-Kadhi faced in every community, but also how they bullied in turn, and even how they came to accept that they didn’t deserve the mistreatment they’d faced (especially from their parents)
It was bittersweetly beautiful to follow this journey, and healing to hear how they came to understanding and forgiveness towards so many. I found it especially impressive that they not only continued to find new community, but faith in a healing Sufi practice as well. However, it does seem like they still have some anti-Arab hate to unlearn. For example, why claim that Moroccans don’t speak Arabic? Of course, it’s a different dialectic than the Arabic spoken in Iraq, but that doesn’t mean it’s not Arabic…
Overall, I’m glad I was able to come back to this book, and I hope to read more from Al-Kadhi!
This was an often difficult but very clarifying and brutally honest memoir. It was so hard to read not only about the bullying and discrimination Al-Kadhi faced in every community, but also how they bullied in turn, and even how they came to accept that they didn’t deserve the mistreatment they’d faced (especially from their parents)
It was bittersweetly beautiful to follow this journey, and healing to hear how they came to understanding and forgiveness towards so many. I found it especially impressive that they not only continued to find new community, but faith in a healing Sufi practice as well. However, it does seem like they still have some anti-Arab hate to unlearn. For example, why claim that Moroccans don’t speak Arabic? Of course, it’s a different dialectic than the Arabic spoken in Iraq, but that doesn’t mean it’s not Arabic…
Overall, I’m glad I was able to come back to this book, and I hope to read more from Al-Kadhi!