MY TONGUE IS STILL MINE

Torn between Pakistan and America, between a Shiite sect of Islam and atheism, between her family and her friends, Mariya has been trying to forge her own identity and define what it means to be home.

Mariya Karimjee was born in Karachi, Pakistan where she lived until her family moved to the United States when she was eleven years old. Durin the middle of her sophomore year at college, her parents gave up on their green card application and were given 180 days by United States Citizenship and Immi gration Services to leave the country. Though Mariya was able to return to the
United States to finish college, she ultimately had to return to Karachi.

A child victim of female genital mutilation at her fami y's behest, much Mariya's writing focuses on her struggles with tradition and taboos.

Mariya Karimjee is a freelance writer who lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She's reported on Pakistan's first democratic transfer of power, day laborers at a ship breaking yard in Balochistan, and the growing rates of infanticide in Pakistan. She's also written about her experience as a victim of FGM/C and growing up Muslim in Texas.

She is a contributor on NPR's This American Life, and her work has appeared in Marie Claire Magazine, BuzzFeed, VICE, and Al Jazeera America.

Karimjee graduated with a MS in Magazine Journalism from Columbia University and earned her BA from Mount Holyoke College. She was a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute of Global Good, and was the inaugural mid career resident at This American Life. She is a former GlobalPost/Kaiser Family Foundation Global Health reporting fellow and was a writer in residence at Hedgebrook where she was arecipient of the 2015 Elizabeth George Award.