Nadeine Asbali would be the first to say that a scarf on a woman's head doesn't define her, but in her case, that’s a lie.

As a mixed-race teenager, Nadeine had unknowingly been passing as white her entire life. Until she decided to wear the hijab. Then, in an instant, she went from being an unassuming white(ish) child to something sinister and threatening, perverse and foreign. 

Written in a sharp and illuminating voice, Veiled Threat is a necessary exploration of what it is to be a visibly Muslim woman in Britain today; a nation frequently intent on forced assimilation and integration; a nation that frequently views covered bodies as primitive and dangerous. From being constantly bombarded by racist stereotypes to being subjected to structural inequalities at every level, Nadeine Asbali asks why Muslim women are forced to grapple the twin oppressions of state-sanctioned Islamophobia and patriarchal norms within their own community, all the while being told by white feminists that they need saving.

Veiled Threat will be published by Biteback in February 2024.