The slide opened and I heard a gentle, kind voice: "What is your confession, my child?" I was stuffed. The Priest would declare me a heretic; my parents would call me a traitor The Priest asked me again: "What is your confession, my child?" "I'm Muslim." I whispered. Welcome to my world. I'm Amal Abdel-Hakim, a seventeen year-old Australian-Palestinian-Muslim still trying to come to grips with my various identity hyphens. It's hard enough being cool as a teenager when being one issue behind the latest Cosmo is enough to disqualify you from the in-group. Try wearing a veil on your head and practising the "bum's up" position at lunchtime and you know you're in for a tough time at school.

Author Biography

Randa Abdel-Fattah is twenty-five, and has her own identity hyphens to contend with (Australian-born-Muslim-Palestinian-Egyptian-choc-a-holic). For years Randa has been active in the inter-faith community. She is also a member of a number of Palestinian human rights campaigns, the Australian Arabic council and various Australian Muslim women networks. Randa grew up in Melbourne but now lives in Sydney where she works as a lawyer. She loves travelling to Egypt and Palestine and being spoilt by her relatives. She also loves reading, watching romantic comedies, her husband's sense of humour, getting a seat on the train, and any movie starring Colin Firth. Randa is currently working on her second novel.