Samir
Excerpt
https://www.muthamagazine.com/2023/04/samir/
While I was moving through the vetting process to become a foster parent for a refugee youth, I was intentional about stating a preference for children from Muslim countries because of my own family's struggle against Islamophobia. I wanted to provide a home that felt culturally familiar and safe. I didn't want a child to have to advocate for themselves in order to get access to a place of worship, appropriate food to eat, and awareness of community celebrations and holidays.
I hadn't been so lucky as a kid. My white mom and Iranian dad had tried their best. There just weren't many models for being a multi-faith, white and West Asian couple in Los Angeles in the 1970's. Even before the American embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979, Americans harbored distrust for immigrants from the Middle East who occupied a liminal space, both legally and culturally, between Black and white.