A Personal History by Wali Shah

My birth country is Pakistan; my family and I came to Canada—first Toronto—when I was three years old. I moved to Mississauga when I was nine.

It wasn’t easy—my family struggled financially, and of course my parents had to learn another language. Then, the 9/11 experience at a young age shaped me a lot. 9/11 quickly became synonymous with Muslims, including South Asians—even non-Muslims who had ethnic names or were from immigrant backgrounds. I faced bullying and a lot of discrimination until I moved from Toronto to Mississauga at age nine. There, I found more of a community, more Muslims, more representation—but still faced some of the same challenges.

I struggled with growing up in a Muslim household in a non-Muslim country. And I often felt alone in my struggles and questions, not knowing how to explain the challenges I was facing to my parents who might see certain topics as taboo. The diaspora and my identity within it affected me deeply, and I had to figure out a lot of things on my own.

For me, writing has always helped to collect my thoughts, to sort out the questions and feelings I had inside. Creating poetry, writing stories, making music: these are my outlet and my coping strategies.

They have also been ways to make a difference in my community and the world at large. Writing is a financially accessible way for young people to turn their pain into power using art. In the midst of COVID, anxiety and depression are on the rise for young people, and existing problems are only exacerbating people’s lives. Writing is a way to tell that story, to help see things in a different light and to create in our own lives and the world at large.

The most significant change I would like to see is for people to come together more—with not just tolerance, but empathy for each other. I think the biggest problems our world is facing right now are rooted in ignorance—that people don’t understand each other, that they buy into a society that divides humans based on our differences rather than brings us together based on our similarities. Our stories and our writing can help break down that fracture.