How Does It Feel to Be A Problem: Being Young and Arab in America (2008)

The fifth chapter focuses on Lina, an Arab-American from a well-educated, wealthy family. The web of Lina’s immigrant legacy is extremely intricate, including moves to and from Kuwait and to different parts of Maryland, Iraq, different parts of Colorado, Brooklyn, and, ultimately, to Syria. 

Lina is born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Professional opportunities for her parents—both Iraqi medical professionals—lead her family to Washington, D.C. when she is a child. Her father studies at Georgetown University with the help of a Kuwaiti grant while her mother works at the Iraqi embassy. Lina’s father’s vocal criticisms of Saddam Hussein, however, lead her mother to lose her job at the embassy. Their income takes a plummet as a result, and the family moves to Hyattsville, a working-class, African-American neighborhood in Maryland. 

Living in Hyattsville is formative for Lina, as she is a child and looking for somewhere she belongs. She feels at home playing with the African-American children in the neighborhood. They even identify with her Islamic background, making jokes about Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

When Lina turns 13, however, her father procures a job with a much higher income, and the family moves to an upper-class (and mostly white) suburban neighborhood in Elkridge, Maryland. Though her parents are pleased with their upward mobility,

Lina feels alienated in this new environment. Throughout high school, she identifies strongly with the small population of black and Latinx students, experimenting with urban fashion and gaining popularity. Lina’s mother, however, disapproves of her style, accusing her of “turning into a black person [,] dressing like them [and] talking like them […]” (158). Eventually, the tension with her mother inspires Lina to rebellions such as smoking, cutting class, and dating Daniel, a half Puerto-Rican, half African-American boy at her school. In the hope of correcting her daughter’s behavior, Lina’s mother sends her to live with her relatives in Ramadi, Iraq. Initially, she only stays for a short visit, but when Lina’s rebellions progress to running away from home, and Daniel is sent to prison for a carjacking, Lina’s family sends her to live in Iraq on a more long-term basis.

In Iraq, Lina lives under strict economic sanctions. Food and utilities are rationed. She turns to Islam for a sense of peace, dressing in full-body religious garments. She also turns to traditional Iraqi marriage, becoming engaged to her cousin, Ahsain. After a year, when Lina’s mother comes to Iraq to pick her up, she is stunned (and somewhat saddened) by her daughter’s transition. “You don’t have to go parading in the hijab to show your [faith],” (166) she tells Lina.

When they return to the US, they move to a small town in Colorado where Lina’s father has accepted a job. Lina finds life in the small town dull until tragedy suddenly strikes and her mother passes away from a Strep A infection. Moved by her mother’s death, Lina breaks off her engagement and sets off to find her own identity.

Lina moves to Denver, takes a job at a Middle Eastern restaurant, and enrolls in college classes. She begins to meet fellow Arab-American immigrants and feel a sense of belonging akin to how she felt as a child in Hyattsville. Inspired by this connection, Lina urges her father to move to the northeast. Her father takes a job in Brooklyn, and Lina moves with him. There, she enrolls in classes at Kingsborough College and meets other Arab-Americans, including the children of an Iraqi diplomat: Mohammed, Ra’ed, Wisam, and Rana. Lina develops close friendships with the daughter, Rana (who is her age), and the young son, Wisam. 

Lina’s father then marries an Iraqi woman and her family expands to include Laith (the eldest brother in the family). When Lina struggles with her mixed emotions around the wedding, Laith comforts her, and they form a connection.

In 2003, the FBI comes to Lina’s home and interviews her about her connection to Ra’ed and Wisam, who have been accused of being operatives for Saddam Hussein. She feels betrayed and believes that they are guilty, but she loyally visits them in prison, explaining, “God’s the one that’s going to judge them. I’m not” (181). 

Lina ultimately marries Laith and establishes a happy family, content in the knowledge that she has married a fellow Iraqi. Nevertheless, she and Laith make plans to move to Syria, saying, “There is no Iraq anymore” (185).