Known for her children's book My Chacha Is Gay, Toronto based Pakistani blogger and illustrator Eiynah 'Nicemangos' wrote an online book in July called 'Eid Book'.
It aims to teach children about Eid from a more secular point of view in the hopes of creating more tolerance, acceptance and inclusivity.
"Basically my aim was to create a children's resource on Eid that spoke to both, people who practice the faith and those who do not, but wish to communicate their culture/history to their kids. I wanted to speak to both groups in hopes of bridging that (very large) gap between the pious and the non practicing/different sects of Muslims. I also wanted to do this, because I feel that Muslim and South Asian kids are underrepresented in mainstream children's literature," Eiynah told BuzzFeed in an email.
"All I want to say is, that its okay -- whatever your family is like and however they choose to practice or not practice -- it's okay."
"The degrees of religiosity of the characters in the book vary to a great degree. Some pray, some don't. There is mention of 'blessings from above' which I hope to be interpreted in whatever way you see fit - either the traditional 'God has blessed us' or simply that blessings from above could refer to the sun's energy and its link to our ecosystem..." writes Eiynah in her Eid Book post.
Read the beautiful book here:
A note from the author:
"This book is dedicated to everyone who has been told they are not the right kind of Muslim, to all those who have been told they are not Muslim enough, to anyone questioning and needing the space, to ex-Muslims whose history is delicately intertwined with their lives. To Ahmedis, to Shias, to Ismailis. May we raise kids with more tolerance than the current generation."