Who is the Apostate?

[Updated Below, February 2008]

I’m a Pakistani woman, raised as a Muslim in Saudi Arabia, and an atheist since the age of 17. I am now 24 25 — and fast approaching middle age.

Aging — while not having ‘done enough’ — is one of my obsessions. I’m introspective to a fault (which tells you which category to avoid), and predictably, a depressive. I read voraciously, know several languages, have extremely interesting dreams (another category to avoid), and somehow work through my anxieities without yielding to neurosis.

Islam, naturally, is a huge interest, although now that it doesn’t have much influence on my life, I’m less unhealthily obsessed with it. Religion, politics, feminism, literature, history, art…let’s just say I’m your garden variety humanities major.

By profession, I’m a paralegal for an intellectual property law firm in San Francisco, CA. I will have been in the glorious United States for 4 years on January 24, 2008.

I’m blogging because everyone else is doing it and I’m pissed because I started some five years too late and now I can’t flaunt archives. I kept putting off starting a blog because those years of archives waiting to be filled overwhelmed me. I wanted a blog with archives pre-filled; I’ve now realized that’s not going to happen.

I’m also blogging because “A life unchronicled is a life half-lived” (yes, I made that up). It does not mean that the world will be privy to my every bowel movement and shown my family pictures. It does, however, mean that you will get to hear about how I’ve had sex with every member of my nuclear family (in my dreams). I will decide, on a case by case basis, where I draw the line.

I can be contacted at: alapostate@gmail.com*.

*”theapostate” was taken; so was “apostate.” “Al” is “the” in Arabic, as everyone now knows. Or should know.

Update - February 2008:

This introduction of mine is by far the most frequently read piece of writing on this blog. It’s out of date and a little — okay, very — flippant. And much like reading most of my old writing, my dominant thought is, “This is not meeee.”

You aren’t likely to find who I am from reading this blog, so I won’t even try to amend or add to what’s written above. But take this as a caveat — the intro above is even factually a little out of date.