“WE’RE STILL FIGURING OUT WHO WE ARE”: 20 YEARS AFTER 9/11, JOURNALIST NOOR TAGOURI IS DECONSTRUCTING THE MUSLIM AMERICAN STORY

Noor Tagouri is a lot of things: an award-winning journalist and producer; a woman of faith; a fashion icon. But on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, she spoke to me as herself, with all the labels stripped away—a 27-year-old Muslim woman grieving for her community, pitted against itself by a hostile society, interpreted as a monolith in a way that robs its individual members of their sense of personhood. She offered raw reflections on why she’d decided not to post about 9/11 on Instagram; the pressure to be a, quote, unquote, “good Muslim” rather than a “bad” one; and her own feeling of nebulousness, of struggling to parse who she really is versus who she feels pressured to be for other people.

Over the next few months, Tagouri—who has amassed a hefty following through her work as a journalist and activist—will search for that same vulnerability from others, collecting and editing submissions for her as-yet-untitled documentary and podcast series set to launch next spring. It will showcase stories from people who have been impacted by inaccurate representations of Muslim and Arab communities—people who are Muslim themselves, or those on the outside looking in. Her goal is to interrogate the constraints, misunderstandings, joys, fears, and outlets that perpetuate, hinder, and inform this intersection of faith and identity.

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