My Past Is a Foreign Country: A Muslim feminist finds herself

My Past is a Foreign Country is a powerful memoir from 27-year-old Zeba Talkhani that embraces feminism within Islam and body positivity. Talkhani charts her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia amid patriarchal customs and restrictive family dynamics, as well as living in India, Germany and the UK as a young woman.

As an Indian immigrant in Europe and the Middle East, Talkhani offers a fresh perspective on living as an outsider, as well as examining her relationship with her mother and the challenges she faced when diagnosed with early-onset baldness as a child. Rejecting the traditional path her culture had chosen for her, Talkhani journeyed abroad, became financially independent and married on her own terms in the UK. Using her personal experiences of being 'othered' and the significant impact hair loss had on her life, Talkhani explores how she fought for the right to her individuality and refused to let negative experiences define her.