Exploring culture and religion through memoir with Zoya Patel (recast from December 2018)

We apologise for the audio quality of some parts of this episode. It was originally published in December 2018.

When we spoke to Zoya we discussed her memoir No Country Woman and the experience of writing the memoir.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Zoya’s family responded to her writing a memoir about her cultural and religious experiences growing up in Australia (and why this has helped them connect as a family)
The power of memoir as a genre to explore cultural issues
The deeply individual experience of race and identity, even within a family and the multiplicity of representations in the media
Finding clarity about growing up in Australia while living and writing overseas
Economic inequality and how it works within structural racism
Intersectionality of inequality and understanding why people make the choices they do
The stories we tell ourselves about individual success
The power of language and communicating confidently in English

Books & other things mentioned