Essays
Why I Lied to Everyone in High School About Knowing Karate
"I wasn’t exceptional. I wasn’t a child prodigy, or a good student or a talented writer. I wasn’t popular. And I didn’t know karate. This was who I truly was, a composite of negatives, a person defined by all she is not."
We Shitholers Shouldn't Have to Tout Our Successes
When did “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” turn into “Give me your PhDs, your neurosurgeons, your top-performing telecommunications sales executives”?
Safe but Not Okay: When White Supremacists Came to Our Town
Jabeen Akhtar on what it was like being a resident of Charlottesville during the August, 2017 Unite the Right rally.
Islam Hasn’t Had Our Friedrich Schleiermacher: A Conversation with Ayad Akhtar
Jabeen Akhtar interviews Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar.
Dear Donald Trump: An Open Letter From Jabeen Akhtar
Jabeen Akhtar gives Donald Trump advice on how to deal with Pakistani parents.
The Evolution of Comics from Batman to Burkas
Looking back on comics’ engagement with socioeconomic, political, and cultural events, it’s no surprise that as we step into this century, brown, mustache-twirling terrorists have begun stirring up trouble in the comics universe. And Captain America isn’t the only one fighting them.
Why Am I Brown? South Asian Fiction and Pandering to Western Audiences
In much contemporary literature, South Asians are exotic little creatures fluttering about in glass jars for the bemusement of monocle-clutching Western observers.
The 17 Elements of a (Bad) South Asian Novel
Cliches about family, heritage, culture and dead grandmothers drives author Jabeen Akhtar crazy.
Too Pre-Occupied to Bring About Change?
The occupy Wall Street movements seem to be islands of passionately discontented people floating about on the open sea, with no direction, leadership or clear targets.
My Mother, the Rebel
A personal essay on the difficulty of being a teenage rebel when your mother is a radical animal rights activist.
Turning Over a Bad Leaf
Jabeen Akhtar on the backlash that followed her 2006 protest against animals in circuses.
Fiction
"Ants on the Wall," Streetlight Magazine (Fiction, Issue 4)
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Listen to a podcast of "Ants on the Wall" performed by voice actor Jennifer Sims
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