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'"One minute you're a 15-year old girl who loves Netflix and music and the next minute you're looked at as maybe ISIS."
'The generation born at the time of the 9/11 attacks are turning 18. What has our changed world meant for them?
'We now have a generation – Muslim and non-Muslim – who have grown up only knowing a world at war on terror. These young people have been socialised in a climate of widespread Islamophobia, surveillance and suspicion. An unparalleled security apparatus around terrorism has grown alongside fears over young people's radicalisation and the introduction into schools and minority communities of various government-led initiatives to counter violent extremism.
'In Coming of Age in the War on Terror Randa Abdel-Fattah, a leading scholar and popular writer, interrogates the impact of all this on young people's trust towards adults and the societies they live in and their political consciousness. Drawing on local interviews but global in scope, this book is the first to examine the lives of a generation for whom the rise of the far-right, the discourse of Trump and Brexit and the growing polarisation of politics seems normal in the long aftermath of 9/11. It's about time we hear what they have to say.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Exhibitions
Notes
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Draws primarily on interview with local high-school students, and includes their poetry.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 540-542)
— Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror 2021 multi chapter work criticism'Students entering Australian universities today have lived their entire lives in the War on Terror (WOT). Declared in September 2001, following attacks on the US mainland by militant Islamist terrorists that claimed over 3,000 lives, the WOT is defined by both its conceptual vagueness—as American commentator Michael Moore has asked, how can you wage war on an emotion?—and temporal fluidity. US Vise President Dick Cheney famously declared: “It [the WOT] is different than the Gulf War was, in the sense that it may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.” If earlier conflicts had been total—mobilising a nation’s manpower and resources—the WOT would be forever.' (Introduction)
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Controlled Visibility
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 80 no. 4 2021; Meanjin Online 2021;
— Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror 2021 multi chapter work criticism'It has always been post-9/11 for me. I was born on a Thursday in 2005.
'I called Western Sydney my first home. I have navigated this nation, albeit for a short time, in a body with identities that are already politicised. Emerging into young adulthood as a brown, Muslim girl has required me to understand and analyse how I am perceived by individuals and larger societal institutions.' (Introduction)
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The White Gaze and Brown Rage in Australian Literature
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2021; Meanjin , Summer vol. 80 no. 4 2021;'It was at a March 2002 camp at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Health where I overheard Steve Jones, who was awarded dux that year, talking about my family.' (Introduction)
-
y
At Home with Randa Abdel-Fattah
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2021
23451747
2021
single work
podcast
interview
'Randa Abdel-Fattah is a prominent Australian author, academic and human rights advocate.
'She seeks to translate her academic work into creative interventions which reshape dominant narratives around race, human rights and identity in popular culture - and she does this well in her 2021 non-fiction work Coming of Age in the War on Terror.
'Her debut novel Does My Head Look Big in This? has sold more than 100,000 copies in Australia, is published around the world and was performed on the stage in America. Randa is currently adapting the world as an Australian feature film.
'Randa has also published eleven novels across a range of genres. In 2018 and 2019 she was nominated for Sweden's 2019 Astrid Lindgren Award, the world's biggest children's and young adult literature award.
'In this interview Randa mentions the anthology After Australia.'(Production introduction)
-
Controlled Visibility
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 80 no. 4 2021; Meanjin Online 2021;
— Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror 2021 multi chapter work criticism'It has always been post-9/11 for me. I was born on a Thursday in 2005.
'I called Western Sydney my first home. I have navigated this nation, albeit for a short time, in a body with identities that are already politicised. Emerging into young adulthood as a brown, Muslim girl has required me to understand and analyse how I am perceived by individuals and larger societal institutions.' (Introduction)
-
Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 540-542)
— Review of Coming of Age in the War on Terror 2021 multi chapter work criticism'Students entering Australian universities today have lived their entire lives in the War on Terror (WOT). Declared in September 2001, following attacks on the US mainland by militant Islamist terrorists that claimed over 3,000 lives, the WOT is defined by both its conceptual vagueness—as American commentator Michael Moore has asked, how can you wage war on an emotion?—and temporal fluidity. US Vise President Dick Cheney famously declared: “It [the WOT] is different than the Gulf War was, in the sense that it may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.” If earlier conflicts had been total—mobilising a nation’s manpower and resources—the WOT would be forever.' (Introduction)
-
y
At Home with Randa Abdel-Fattah
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2021
23451747
2021
single work
podcast
interview
'Randa Abdel-Fattah is a prominent Australian author, academic and human rights advocate.
'She seeks to translate her academic work into creative interventions which reshape dominant narratives around race, human rights and identity in popular culture - and she does this well in her 2021 non-fiction work Coming of Age in the War on Terror.
'Her debut novel Does My Head Look Big in This? has sold more than 100,000 copies in Australia, is published around the world and was performed on the stage in America. Randa is currently adapting the world as an Australian feature film.
'Randa has also published eleven novels across a range of genres. In 2018 and 2019 she was nominated for Sweden's 2019 Astrid Lindgren Award, the world's biggest children's and young adult literature award.
'In this interview Randa mentions the anthology After Australia.'(Production introduction)
-
The White Gaze and Brown Rage in Australian Literature
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2021; Meanjin , Summer vol. 80 no. 4 2021;'It was at a March 2002 camp at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Health where I overheard Steve Jones, who was awarded dux that year, talking about my family.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2022 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Multicultural NSW Award
- 2022 longlisted The Stella Prize
- 2022 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Award for Non-Fiction
