“But you don’t look Arab” is a sentence that internationally renowned Arab American journalist Hala Gorani has heard for decades.
Following her decision to step down from her global affairs show on CNN International's Hala Gorani Tonight, she has transformed her life story into a refreshingly frank and engaging memoir titled after that oft-repeated sentence.
What I found most striking about the book is what it implies about Arab representation in the international public domain— especially in the case of Arab women and the multiple barriers they face because of their ethnicity and gender.
The book is a series of vignettes weaving Gorani’s personal journey with stories of the Middle East and the world of international journalism. It is revealing on all three fronts.
Central to the book is Gorani’s quest for identity and belonging. Born to Syrian parents in the United States, she grew up mainly in France and worked internationally, including in the UK. Gorani’s search for a home is one of the drivers in her life.
There are many Arabs in countries outside the Arab world who feel fully integrated and do not struggle with issues of identity.
But many also do. In the book, Gorani says how much, as a little girl, she hated her relatives in Syria, referring to her as “Hala the American” whenever she was visiting them. She felt like an “other” in Syria, just as she did in the US and France.
Gorani's search for belonging likely resonates with many in the Arab diaspora who feel they don't fully belong— neither in their country of residence nor their country of origin.
Gorani initially suppressed her ethnicity to break into journalism in France. I
n looking for work there in her early career, she describes resorting to removing Arabic as a language skill from her résumé and attaching a photo—knowing that she does not look “Arab”—to hide her heritage and thus avoid being discriminated against.
She also changed her public surname from Ibrahim Basha to Gorani—her mother’s maiden name—because “Gorani” sounded more European.
The tactics worked, and her journalism career took off.
Different worlds within the West
One observation in Gorani’s book is that she does not present the West as a homogenous place. Instead, she points out the “world of difference" between the US and France. She said it took her years to eventually reconcile with her heritage.
In the book, she joyfully recalls her time presenting the show Inside the Middle East on CNN, for which she travelled to every Arab country to report on their rich social and cultural identities.
She reflects that she felt she had to use the stereotype about what an Arab looks like so she could defy Western prejudice.
But she also says how it was not just Westerners who told her that she doesn’t look Arab. Sometimes, it was Arabs themselves who made the same comment.
