Sunburnt Veils

Sunburnt Veils is a smart, funny, character-based exploration of Islamophobia through a heroine who's the kind of girl who reads at parties, but pushes herself to take a visible stand after a fellow student calls in a bomb threat on her first day of university, after she leaves a bag in a lecture theatre to take a phone call.

Girl meets boy, ghosts his text messages, then convinces him to help her run for the student union. Just your typical love story with a hijabi twist.

Tara wears hijab even though her parents hate it, and in a swipe right world she's looking for the 'will go to the ends of the earth for you' type of love. Or, she would be, if she hadn't sworn off boys to focus on getting into med. Besides, what's wrong with just crushing on the assassins, mages and thieves in the fantasy books she reads?

When a bomb threat on her first day of university throws her together with totally annoying party king and oh-so-entitled politician's son Alex, things get complicated. Tara needs to decide if she's happy reading about heroes, or if she's ready to step up and be one herself.

About the Author

Sara Haghdoosti was born in Iran, grew up in Sydney and now lives in Chicago. Like her protagonist, she has been politically active from a young age. Sara got her start in organising at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and then went on to work at GetUp, Change.org, the Mozilla Foundation and founded Berim ('Let's go' in Farsi) - a non-profit that worked to support change makers in Iran. She's currently the Deputy Director at Win Without War. Her writing has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Drum and she's been a panelist on ABC TV's Q&A.

Sunburnt Veils is her first novel.