By Anjali Ramesh

The George Washington University ’23

As a generation who grew up on books like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, fantasy and dystopian novels have greatly influenced the views of our generation. As amazing as these books are, they lack the representation that so many of us have wished to see. With the greatest form of South Asian representation being the Padma and Parvati in Harry Potter, it’s time for our community to finally have a voice in the fantasy and dystopian genres.

Recently, I had the chance to interview Bareerah Zafar, a South Asian author whose upcoming novel, The Source of Hate, is a YA fantasy and dystopian novel that features a Pakistani Muslim individual as the main character. As we chatted, we discussed Bareerah’s path to becoming a writer, her novel, her South Asian identity, and the importance of having more representation and diversity in the stories that we love to read.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

“Yeah! So, I was born in Pakistan but I came to the US when I was fairly little, and I grew up in California. I went to college at The University of Oregon, and now that I’ve just graduated from college, I’m back in my hometown of LA, and I’m just chilling and writing a book!”

What did you study in college, and what was your college experience like in general?

“I graduated from The University of Oregon this past June, and I studied Journalism and Ethnic Studies because I always knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to be able to tell people stories, especially the stories of people who are often misrepresented or underrepresented in the media and as a result, they face a lot of racism and discrimination because of what people see on TV and the stories that are told. That’s what really inspired me to become a writer and to pursue journalism.”

“While I was in college, I took part in a lot of multicultural organizations. I was the president of the Muslim Students Association, I was the director of the Women of Color Coalition, and then I took part in other organizations like the Arab Student Association [and] the Multicultural Center. I just really surrounded myself with a lot of BIPOCs because I don’t know if you know much about Eugene, Oregon, but it’s very very Caucasian, which I wasn’t used to growing up in LA. I always had a really big Muslim community and a really big Pakistani community here with me, so I was kind of taken aback when I went to Eugene and there weren’t many people who looked like me, but I did find other really amazing individuals to form a strong bond with.”

What inspired you to become a writer?

“Growing up, I really felt the effect of the hatred that came after 9/11. I was constantly called a terrorist, I was constantly othered by my peers. I didn’t have many friends, so I naturally just turned to books because they could just take me out of this world that I was living in. I could go into whole new worlds where people didn’t know who I was, and I could make friends with the characters and I could grow with them and with their stories, and I just through that was really really beautiful. I analyzed how much reading and fantasy in general had helped me get past all those hardships and I wanted to do the same for other people, so when I was ten years old, I decided that I wanted to grow up to be an author.”

What has the process of writing your novel during a pandemic been like?

“I really started working on this novel more seriously in the past couple of months, but it’s been in the makings since high school. Even when I was ten years old, I started thinking about what it is I want to write. I wrote a couple of short stories, I wrote fanfiction, nothing super serious. Then in high school, when I started seeing the effects of systemic racism, not just on the Muslim American community, but on Black Americans as well, and I saw the Ferguson protests and learned more about police brutality, I realized that people need a story where the main characters look like the people who are actually out on the streets right now, fighting for their rights, because I want them to know that their stories are valued and represented.”

“So that went on and off for a little bit because as motivated as I was in high school, I was also battling with depression and anxiety and all the stress that comes with college admissions so I didn’t make the progress on it that I really wanted to, and then when college came I became even more busy, so I didn’t have as much time to work on it. Then I graduated college, realized that I’m probably not going to get a job anytime soon because of what we’re living through right now, but then one of my friends pointed me to this program where a professor from Georgetown was helping people write books and publish their books, and I was like ‘Okay, why not?’ since I had a pretty strong foundation for a book idea. I’ve been in that program since June and it’s going to end in October and I’m already halfway through my manuscript. As hard as it’s been with mental health and a pandemic, I think it hasn’t been as hard on me because I am very very privileged and I don’t have to worry about getting a job right now, and I realize that’s not the reality for many people out there, so I’m just trying to make the best of the situation.”

Can you tell us a little bit about your novel?

“My Book, The Source of Hate, is the first book of the Khadijah Haq series, and it is a young adult fantasy novel and a dystopian novel set a little bit in the future. In this novel, we’re seeing the full effect of climate change and most of the world is underwater due to floods and a series of other natural disasters that have affected the land that isn’t underwater. We’re also seeing how climate change and corrupt government work together to screw over the most vulnerable and the most underprivileged people.”

“Khadijah is a Pakistani Muslim individual and she’s gone through trauma and a whole identity crisis, and we get to follow her story and grow with her as she deals with the world around her and deals with her identity and this feeling of helplessness that she can’t help everybody that she comes across. Later on in the book, she realizes that she actually has magical powers, and it’s something that a lot of other people have yet no one talks about because magic is illegal, so she forms a team with her closest friends and they decide to use their magic for good and to help people out.”

What inspired your ideas for the background and characters in this novel?

“Originally, Khadijah wasn’t going to be Pakistani or Muslim, but now that it’s been a couple of years since I thought of this idea for the book, I thought that it was about time we had a strong, Muslim, brown lead in fantasy. What inspired this idea early on were the protests in Ferguson, and after everything that happened there, my entire perception of the world changed, and I realized that our society and government were so much more screwed up than I has ever imagined and it made me realize how dystopian it really is. We read books like The Hunger Games or Divergent and we think that this is a fantasy novel and that it’s such a far out idea, but it’s really not- this is the reality that we’re living right now, and a lot of people don’t seem to understand that and they think that this is normal. In my book, I want to show that this is not normal and that we need to do something about it before it’s too late.”

What are some important themes throughout your novel?

“It’s always been really important for me to have a diverse group of characters that aren’t just there as a token character and they’re not just there to help the main character with their stories. I want to make sure that they have their own stories too, so one of the themes is identity. Most of my characters are BIPOC and have a wide range of identities and sexualities, and I wanted to make sure that they represent real world people. So identity is a really important theme, especially when it comes to people who battle with their identities, especially regarding their names. For me, my name is extremely important to me because it’s always been something that people have struggled with. I’ve never been okay with people giving me nicknames because that’s not my name: my name is Bareerah, it’s the name that my grandmother gave me and its connected to my culture and my religion, so it’s really really important to me. That’s something I want to convey with my book, that somebody’s name can hold much importance and meaning.”

“My book also explores conversations about race and class and the intersections of politics when it comes to identity and how at times, our system actively works against the most vulnerable population in order to keep them suppressed to keep the majority happy.”

Why do you think it’s important to have a novel featuring BIPOC characters?

“Because that’s what our real world society looks like! It’s not just white people who get the stories, its not just the white people who are here. Especially now with the protests, the heroes are out on the streets, fighting against this corrupt government and they’re not all white, not at all. They’re Black, they’re Asian, they’re queer, and they deserve to be represented. I grew up with Harry Potter and The Hunger Games and Eragon and all [of] those books and as much as I love these characters and these stories, I could never completely relate to them because there just aren’t many books that feature Black characters or Muslim characters or brown characters. I just want people to see themselves and see their stories in my book.”

What does your South Asian identity mean to you?

“Oh my gosh, my South Asian identity is everything to me. I grew up in California, and to some people I’m not Pakistani enough but then to Americans, I’m not American enough and it’s always been this conflict between the two identities, but I always feel like I definitely embrace my Pakistani side way more than my American side because that’s just how my parents raised me. They raised me around people like us and to speak love and appreciation for my culture and my language, and that’s just something that has always been with me.”

What advice do you have for other South Asian women who are interested in becoming writers or journalists themselves?

“Honestly, just read, read, read, and then read some more, because that’s going to help you so much with refining your craft and finding other individuals whose writing inspires you, and that can definitely shape your own writing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from mentors, and I’m here to talk to anybody about writing for days and days and days. Just keep going, because I know that imposter syndrome is very real, especially for South Asian women, but I promise you that there are people who want to read your stories.”

What can we expect next from you and the Khadijah Haq series?

“So I am in the middle of writing my manuscript right now, which is due in October, and that’s just a very scary thought because it’s coming up so soon, but after that I will be looking for beta readers, so if anybody is interested in helping make my book a reality they can definitely contact me to become a beta reader. I think my pre-sale is going to be around January, and then I am publishing in the spring!”

Check out Bareerah’s Instagram, @browngirlramblings, to keep up with her writing process and to learn more about The Source of Hate!