Summary

In Chapter 1, Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim is walking on her treadmill when an episode of the television show Friends inspires her to take a stand for her Muslim religion by wearing her hajib all the time. Despite the decision, she continues to weigh the options – including the consequences – throughout the weekend. Amal provides some information about herself, including that she and her family live in Camberwell, which is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Families of various ethnic backgrounds lived in their previous neighborhood, but Camberwell is different. Amal is in her eleventh year of attending McCleans, a private school. She knows that wearing the hajib will be difficult. Her mother, Jamila, is a dentist. Her father, Mohamed, is a doctor who drives a sports car and mistakenly believes he is still cool.

In Chapter 2, Amal cites the fact that she feels closer to...