Creative Representations of Muslim Voices

Explanation:

For this piece, I wanted to depict Changez’s split identity in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in which he struggles to reconcile his American life and education with his Pakistani roots. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, along with several other texts we have read, highlights the identity crisis Muslim immigrants to the West go through, as they feel torn between two seemingly-opposing places, never quite fitting into either, and are consistently pressured by both sides to choose one identity over the other. While Persepolis explored multifaceted identity, The Reluctant Fundamentalist portrayed identity as being starkly split. Changez never seems to be able to successfully merge the two facets of his identity, and it was this divide between his American and Pakistani sides that I aimed to portray in my drawing.

I used oil pastels to draw a portrait of Changez, with a jagged black line splitting the drawing in two. On the left side is the ‘American’ Changez: clean-shaven, wearing a suit and tie befitting of an Underwood Samson employee in New York City, against the backdrop of the American flag. On the right side, the ‘Pakistani’ Changez has a full beard (in keeping with Muslim tradition), and is wearing a shalwar kameez, with the Pakistani flag in the background. Both Pakistan and America are given equal space and prominence in the drawing, illustrating that Changez can exist in either world. Both are an integral part of his identity. However, only half of him thrives in each space, so he never is fully present in either.