Biteback acquires Asbali’s book on being a British Muslim woman

Biteback Publishing has snapped up “sharp and illuminating” Veiled Threat: On being visibly Muslim in Britain by Nadeine Asbali.

Olivia Beattie, editorial director, who is currently on maternity leave, acquired world rights from Amberley Lowis at the Viney Agency. Veiled Threat will be published in January 2024.

Veiled Threat explores life as a Muslim woman through the lens of Asbali’s personal experiences, beginning with the formative event of choosing to wear the hijab as a teenager. It illuminates the everyday battles with structural inequality and racial stereotypes many Muslims fight every day, in a nation becoming increasingly hostile to difference, and particularly highlights the experiences of Muslim women who also contend with misogyny and the saviour-complex of white feminism, the publisher said.

Asbali is a British-Libyan writer and secondary school teacher from London.

Asbali said: “I hope Veiled Threat will make a valuable contribution to the conversation about what it means to be a visibly Muslim woman in Britain today.”

Ella Boardman of Biteback said: “Covering topics including motherhood, the failings of white feminism and Andrew Tate’s conversion to Islam, Veiled Threat blends the personal and the political and acts as a much-needed rallying cry for fairness and understanding in our divided nation.”