My new novella, Drawing a Veil, is about a girl who decides to wear a headscarf to school, and her friends’ and classmates’ reaction to that decision.
I’m fascinated by the idea of choice, and how we deal with the awkward fact that if we support people’s right to make free choices, then we also have to support them when they make a choice we may not agree with.
Writing this book did make me feel uncomfortable at times, and I know it made a few of my feminist friends uncomfortable too.
So is it a good idea to write about something which makes you feel uncomfortable or challenges the comfy assumptions you don’t question often enough?
If I only wrote about decisions which I agreed with, if I only wrote stories which I felt happy and warm and cosy writing, then I probably wouldn’t write anything worth reading. (A lot of Helen’s risk-taking in the First Aid series, for example, makes me VERY nervous as a mum!)
So, even though I’m an atheist, who would never cover any bit of me up to please a god I don’t believe in, I realised that if I want the right NOT to wear a headscarf, then I also have to stand up for other people’s right to wear headscarves if that’s what they want. (And of course, any girl’s, or any woman’s, right not to cover up if she doesn’t want to.)
Also I think there’s an assumption that all girls in veils or scarves are shy, unsure of themselves, hiding themselves. But when I talk to kids in schools about imagination and creativity, I see absolutely no difference in their levels of confidence or self esteem, whatever the girls are wearing on their heads. So I really wanted to write about a girl in a headscarf who stands up for herself, who takes part in an argument, a fight and a chase (because action is what I enjoy writing!)
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about subjects which make me uncomfortable or make me question my own assumptions. In both Wolf Notes and Rocking Horse War, I’ve written about hunting and hunters, even though I’ve been a strict vegetarian since I was 14. So writing about wolves hunting deer, or girls tracking deer (poor deer are victims in a few of my books!) made me question my own reasons for being vegetarian. When I was researching wolves and how hunting led to their social networks and their intelligence, I seriously considered becoming an omnivore again, because that’s what humans evolved to be. But after reflection, I decided my reasons for being vegetarian were more than just a long lasting fit of teenage pique, so I am still a proud veggie.
But the point is that I write about characters who believe very different things from me, and I allow those characters and their stories to make me examine my own beliefs. I think that’s a very good thing. For the characters, for the stories and for me.
And how did spending time with Amina in Drawing a Veil change my comfy assumptions? Writing about this confident girl and her decisions made me realise that a freely taken decision to wear a headscarf can be a positive assertion of identity, rather than a passive adherence to family or religious pressure.
So – what beliefs or assumptions of yours could do with being taken out and examined by stories, characters and tough questions?
Drawing a Veil cover
Great idea and lovely bright cover. It is great to encourage young people to challenge their own perceptions and those around them. lets hope it is happening in all schools.
I wrote the story because I wanted to spend time with the two main characters, and the questions they were posing in my head, not in order to address an “issue”, or challenge anyone but myself. I’ll be delighted if the book does make people think, and discuss, but I’ll mainly be delighted if they connect with Amina and Ellie, and enjoy reading about their difficult day!
A very interesting, thought-provoking post, and one which I think will effect my writing. I don’t think I often enough shoogle myself out my comfort zone by creating sympathetic characters who disagree with me on big stuff. Then again, being Quaker and never actually having written a Quaker character, it could be argued that I consistently write characters with different religious views, but (though it gets mentioned quite a lot in Glasgow Fairytale) that seldom has a dierect bearing on the plot.
I’m looking forward to reading Veil (is it out yet? If not, when) and talking to you about the writing process – I imagine it must have been one of your hardest books to research.
It certainly wasn’t the most research I’ve ever done (if you want a lot of research, try writing historical fiction!) And it’s a novella rather than a full-blown novel, so it is more of snapshot than a life story. But it did require a big leap of imagination to see someone else’s point of view.
I think you put it very well when you say the hard thing is having a SYMPATHETIC character whose views you don’t necessarily agree with – because of course we all write baddies whose views we don’t subscribe to! I loved writing about Amina, and spending time with her gave me an unexpected understanding firstly of why she might rationally choose a headscarf, and secondly of how that could be an indication of a genuinely confident personality. Both of which were not what my half-thought out assumptions about girls who wear headscarves had led me to expect.
And yes, Drawing A Veil is out! On the shelves or on order in all good bookshops, and of course, available on the many tentacled Amazon…