I wish someone told me not to get off the car when stopped by a cop as a sign of respect for them.
I wish someone told me not to pick up random kids in the park and kiss them on the cheeks like we do on Morocco without being considered psychos.
In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of Americaa Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record.
On Sunday April 19th, 1992 at 11:45 PM Iman Belali made her way to this world to Moroccan born parents, Malika Belali and Mohamed Belali. Even in kindergarten Iman was often described as a social butter fly. She made friends every where she went. Simply put Iman was destined to be a peoples person.
At age 12, Iman took action. She saw negative stereotyping of Arabs (in American media) and of Americans (in Arab media) and decided to make a change at her level. Iman used a portion of her college fund to provide school supplies for 80 students in Chefchaouen, Morocco (where her grandparents were born) the first step toward educating teens in Morocco and the US about the kindness and generosity of people in both countries.